Ouaddou adds to Orlando Pirates’ list of foreign coaches

Orlando Pirates have unveiled Moroccan Abdeslam Ouaddou as their new head coach on Monday.

He becomes the latest in a long line of foreign-born tacticians to lead the club in the Premier Soccer League era and has big shoes to fill following the successful tenure of the Spaniard Jose Riveiro.

Supersport.com looks at the other foreign coaches to have led Pirates since the start of the 1996/97 season.

VIKTOR BONDARENKO (RUSSIA)

The new PSL launched in August 1996 but Bondarenko, who had been in charge prior to that, lasted only 11 league games, though it was enough time to take Pirates to the BoB Save Super Bowl as they beat Jomo Cosmos in the final.

RONALD MKHANDAWIRE (MALAWI)

Mkhandawire was back for another spell as caretaker coach after Bondarenko’s departure having been a loyal club servant for some years and the man in charge when they lifted the 1995 CAF Champions Cup in Abidjan.

AUGUSTO PALACIOS (PERU)

The first of a number of spells in charge was a brief one with supporters baying for his blood after a 3-0 home defeat to Hellenic in early 1997. Palacios quit soon afterwards.

RONALD MKHANDAWIRE

Mkhandawire came to the rescue again and filled in when Palacios left, starting the 1997/98 season in charge. He was thought of as a little soft on the players to be handed the role fulltime, despite having a very good record in charge.

SHAIBU AMODU (NIGERIA)

He arrived in October 1997 to take charge of the side and led them to third in the league and the final of the Bob Save Super Bowl, the replay of which was only to be played after the 1998 World Cup, by which time he had been replaced.

VIKTOR BONDARENKO

Bondarenko was back in charge for the start of the new season 1998/99 season lost that BobSave final to Sundowns on penalties. Once again the team could only finish third in the league though, some 15 points behind Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs.

TED DUMITRU (ROMANIA)

Dumitru arrived on the back of two successive titles with Sundowns, completing his ‘coaching hat-trick’ of the top clubs after also working at Chiefs. He was paired with the club’s technical head Palacios in a relationship few thought could really work. His stay at Pirates lasted six months.

RONALD MKHANDAWIRE

A fourth spell in charge of the Buccaneers, to see out the rest of the 1999/00 season, emphasised the trust that Mkhandawire enjoyed inside the club. Despite all the turmoil the team finished second and got to the semifinals of the African Cup Winners’ Cup.

AUGUSTO PALACIOS

The departure of league winning coach Gordan Igesund following the 2000/01 season left Palacios to return as caretaker coach. He stayed several months before Pirates found a permanent replacement.

JEAN-YVES KERJEAN (FRANCE)

From the village of Ploudalmézeau in Brittany, France, Kerjean was an unknown factor when he arrived in South Africa. He took the club to a third place finish in 2001/02 but was never a convincing personality. As a coach he worked in France’s lower league, at Vannes and Annecy among others, before arriving in Mzansi.

ROY BARRETO (ZIMBABWE)

He had been national coach of his native Zimbabwe and then moved to Free State Stars where he made his name reviving the club. He took Pirates to the league title in 2002/03 but was fired early in the next season when Pirates’ expectations went beyond the realms of reality.

AUGUSTO PALACIOS

Palacios, now with the official title as Pirates’ development director, saw out the rest of the 2003/04 season. The defending champions finished fifth and went out embarrassingly early in the African Champions League to Malawi’s Bakili Bullets.

KOSTA PAPIC (SERBIA)

Papic was a physical education expert whose coaching acumen was questioned but who took the side to a second place finish at the end of the 2004/05 season, and repeated the feat in his second campaign in charge – although then resigned with one league game to go and the Absa Cup final against Chiefs still to play. He claimed he was quitting because he didn’t win the league title.

MICHO SREDOJEVIC (SERBIA)

The youthful Serbian coach had worked at SC Villa in Uganda and St George of Ethiopia but it was another gamble on a untested coach by the Buccaneers. He lasted barely six months, though did take the side to the semifinals of the CAF Champions League, where they lost to CS Sfaxien of Tunisia.

BIBEY MUTOMBO (DR CONGO)

The late Mutombo first joined Pirates as the club’s technical director, bringing impressive qualifications from Belgium and experience with the national team of his native Democratic Republic of Congo. He then had to step into the coaching job after Sredojevic was shown the door. Pirates finished fifth at the end of the season, but supporters always seemed to have it in for Mutombo and he quit under increasing pressure early in the 2007-08 season.

RUUD KROL (NETHERLANDS)

The Netherlands’ World Cup captain and holder of the record number of caps had not had as spectacular a coaching career but still worked at clubs like Ajax Amsterdam and Barcelona, and been national team coach of Egypt. He would become the first coach in Pirates’ history to last more than two seasons in charge and finished with the league and cup double in 2010/11. Despite this, his contract was not renewed.

JULIO CESAR LEAL (BRAZIL)

Leal coached at 10 different clubs in Brazil before working in Kuwait, Tanzania and Japan, and first arriving in South Africa in 2007. He signed a three-year deal with Pirates but lasted only nine months, departing even though the club were on their way to retaining their league title.

AUGUSTO PALACIOS

Palacios returned to lead the club in an 11-match unbeaten run in the league and to a two-point margin of victory at the top of the standings. It was more than third of the league season in charge, justifiably allowing him to claim a first league title after some 25 years of working in South Africa. He left one month into the new season.

VLADIMIR VERMEZOVIC (SERBIA)

Appointing a former Kaizer Chiefs coach, less than two years after he left AmaKhosi, came as a surprise choice but Vermezovic hit the ground running after his arrival in March 2014 and won his first trophy just two months later as Pirates beat Wits 3-1 in the Nedbank Cup final. Vermezovic quit with the club reeling after the murder of goalkeeper Senzo Meyiwa and stuck in sixth place in the standings.

MUHSIN ERTUGRAL (TURKEY)

Ertugral joined the ranks of former Chiefs coaches taking over at the Buccaneers but fell on his sword after just nine games as Pirates suffered their heaviest defeat in a 6-1 thumping in Nelspruit at the hands of SuperSport United.

AUGUSTO PALACIOS

Pirates were caught cold by Ertugral’s departure, so turned to Palacios again and while he won his first two games in charge, to suggest a possible turnaround, Pirates then went eight league games without success, including a 6-0 mauling from Mamelodi Sundowns.

KJELL JONEVRET (SWEDEN)

Jonevret had won the league in Sweden and also done well in Norway, and was recommended to Khoza. He seemed a genial enough but had that ‘rabbit in a headlights’ stare which became more pronounced as he battled to come to grips with the African experience. When he left he was one of the few Pirates coaches to bemoan the continual interference, which is a hallmark of the way the club is run.

MICHO SREDOJEVIC

The Serbian returned after a further decades’ experience on the continent, including taking Uganda to the Africa Cup of Nations finals for the first time in 39 years. He took Pirates to second place in successive seasons, but hastily quit to take a job with Zamalek just after the start of the 2019/20 season.

JOSEPH ZINNBAUER (GERMANY)

Zinnbauer came with the pedigree of having worked in the Bundesliga with Hamburg, albeit at a time when they were chopping and changing coaches in an, ultimately unsuccessful, bid to stave off relegation. Just months into his tenure came the Covid-19 pandemic, then the bio-bubble and a horror car crash involving his son in Germany.

It all made for a difficult tenure and Pirates only rarely showed glimpses of potential. Zinnbauer no longer had any appetite when he returned at the start of the 2021/22 season and went back to Germany after a loss in the quarterfinals of the MTN8.

JOSE RIVEIRO (SPAIN)

Riveiro was a left-field pick that came out of nowhere, but after almost three seasons in charge left the club for Al Ahly with a hat-trick of MTN8 wins and two Nedbank Cup titles. He did not quite manage to match Sundowns in the league, but there is no doubt he left the club in a stronger position than he found it.

That includes reaching the CAF Champions League semifinals in his last year in charge. He will go down in history as one of the club’s most successful, and popular, coaches.