WATCH | Chiefs will announce coach in due course — Jessica Motaung

Kaizer Chiefs marketing director Jessica Motaung has reiterated that the club will announce the new coach in due course, as rumours are rife as to who will lead Amakhosi going forward.

The Chiefs coaching job is vacant after the club parted ways with interim co-coaches Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze at the end of the season, despite finishing third to qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup for the second season running.

French coach Fernando da Cruz, who is familiar to Amakhosi, having briefly joined them in 2024 as one of coach Nasreddine Nabi’s assistants before departing barely a month into the job, is said to be the hot favourite to land the coaching job at Naturena.

Kaizer Chiefs are looking for an experienced coach after they informed co-coaches Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef that they will not continue with them next season. The duo took over as co-coaches after the departure of Nasreddine Nabi earlier in the season. They guided Amakhosi to a third-place finish with 54 points from 30 matches, which is the highest points tally since 2019/20, and qualified the club for the CAF Confederation Cup. They finished 15 points behind the league champions, Orlando Pirates. Despite their impressive return, the club decided against retaining them as they look for someone experienced ahead of next season to challenge Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns for titles. Fitness coach Majdi Safi will also leave with them, while goalkeeper coach Ilyes Mzoughi’s future is unclear. Kaze revealed after their 1-0 defeat to Chippa United that they hoped they had done enough to convince the management to give them a permanent job. But their poor performances in cup competitions resulted in the club looking for an experienced coach after they finished the season without a title. Pitso Mosimane and Manqoba Mngqithi have already been linked with a move to join the Glamour Boys. Mngqithi is currently with Golden Arrows, while Mosimane is unattached.

Former Wydad Casablanca coach Sven Vandenbroeck has also been linked to Chiefs.

However, Motaung has suggested that the process of securing a new coach was still under way.

“Certainly the season has ended and we are taking time out to now announce things like the Toyota Cup in preparation for preseason,” Motaung said at the Toyota Cup launch at the club’s Naturena Village on Tuesday.

“Supporters and everybody alike can look forward to announcements in due course regarding the new technical team, player movements and things like that. The Toyota Cup is a showpiece for us to showcase the new technical team, the new players and our new kit.”

In the wake of their 15th league win of the season, when they beat AmaZulu 1-0 at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Cedric Kaze has lauded the Amakhosi’s improvement. Chiefs went into the Durban game having already secured third place on the log and a guaranteed slot in next season’s CAF Confederation Cup. They also qualified for the MTN8 knockout tournament for the first time in three years. “There was not any dominant team this season. I believe we were very close until probably late January,” said Kaze. “This group of players has grown so much throughout the season ... they played in the Confed Cup, where we travelled a lot. Now you can see the togetherness in the team.” But despite his team’s solid form, Kaze suggested they should have done even better in challenging for the championship. “There are lessons we learnt about what we could have done differently to maybe stay in touch with the log leaders. But if you compare the points difference between this season and the last one, we can all see a huge improvement,” the Chiefs coach added. Chiefs played the last 20 minutes against AmaZulu with 10 men after goal-scorer Glody Lilepo was sent off for removing his shirt after scoring, having already been booked. “It was unfortunate to play the last 20 minutes with a man down, but we weren’t really in danger. We controlled the game and we were defending well ... we made a little tweak in our system by introducing Miguel to make a back-three to control the space behind our defensive line,” Kaze said. “It was an unfortunate situation with Lilepo. He’s a player with a lot of experience and he should know better, especially as he had already been booked in the first half. But that’s football, and I also understand his emotions when he scored because a human being without emotion is not a human being.” Chiefs host Chippa United at Moses Mabhida Stadium in their last game of the season on Saturday. Sowetan

Having invited Young Africans of Tanzania and Ghana’s Asante Kotoko in the past two years, Chiefs decided to invite one of the fastest-growing clubs in the SADC region, Zimbabwean champions Scottland, for this year’s Toyota Cup, billed for Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg on July 26.

“We’ve had an East African team and a West African team, so Southern Africa was where we needed to look, and as a club we’ve been engaging with Scottland about what we are doing commercially with our brand and the investment in the game,” Motaung said, explaining how they chose Scottland.

Scottland, one of the richest teams in Southern Africa, have two former Chiefs players, Knowledge Musona and Khama Billiat, on their books. They won the Zimbabwean league in their first season in the top flight.

Sowetan