Minziro proud despite sacking

Dar es Salaam. Former Young Africans assistant coach Fred Minziro has spoken of his pride in having managed the Jangwani Street giants despite his ceremonial sacking.

Minziro, who once played for the Mainland champions, lost his job after the club, better known as Yanga, disbanded the technical bench on Tuesday.

The outspoken coach has played an integral role in Yanga’s back-to-back league titles and is now leaving the team at the summit of the premiership.

“It was an honour for me to coach Yanga with different top coaches, it is the club that I loved playing for and one that is so close to my heart,” said Minziro, a day after being shown the door.

“I am extremely proud of the successes and trophies that we were able to bring to Yanga over the past two seasons,” said the former left-back.

Minziro was hired by Yanga in 2011 and has worked under Kostandin Papic, Tom Saintfiet and Ernie Brandts, winning two league trophies and two Cecafa’s Kagame Interclub Cup titles.

“Lifting all these titles in a short time was without doubt the highlight of my career to date, both as a player and assistant coach,” said the former Taifa Stars defender.

“It is a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life.”

Minziro said he was open to negotiating with any Premier League team that will be seeking his services, bragging that he will prove critics wrong.

“I am a professional coach, so I am ready to train any team that is interested in my services; I am confident that I will secure another job in the near future and I will prove my critics wrong.”

The disbandment of the technical bench has come days after they dismissed the head coach, Ernie Brandts, following their humiliating 3-1 defeat to arch-rivals Simba in the Nani Mtani Mjembe match played at the National Stadium recently.

Following the disbandment of the technical bench, Yanga have announced withdrawing from the Mapinduzi Cup that kicked off yesterday. Yanga, pooled in group C, were scheduled to play their first match today against Kenyan side Tusker FC at the Amaan Stadium, Zanzibar.

Organisers of the Mapinduzi Cup have moved swiftly to replace Yanga with Ashanti United-- a struggling outfit in the Vodacom Premier League.

Club’s secretary general Beno Njovu confirmed to The Citizen yesterday that they had already notified the organisers of the Mapinduzi Cup over their inability to take part.

“We informed them (organisers) before the kick-off and we are confident that they will get another club to replace Yanga.

“It was our intention to participate in the event because it would have served to sharpen our skills ahead of both the premiership and African Champions League, but unfortunately, we are going through a rough time trying to get in new coaches,” he said. 

Njovu said the club was still in talks with several coaches trying to fill the void left after sacking of the head coach and the technical bench.

“There are a lot of coaches who have shown interest to train Yanga, but our leaders are still in talks and we are looking forward to filling the post sooner rather than later,” he said.

Early this week, credible sources within the club had told this paper that the coach would have come from England and that he would have been unveiled on Tuesday, but it was all rumours.

Njovu, however, adds that a total of 45 coaches from across the word have so far applied for the poisoned chalice.

Speculations are rife that Ruvu Shooting head coach Boniface Mkwasa is inching closer to replacing Minziro after agree personal terms with the Jangwani Street club.