The start of Nasreddine Nabi’s second season in charge at Kaizer Chiefs will come with personal significance as he gears up to four competitions.
By the time Chiefs kick off their new Betway Premiership campaign away at Stellenbosch FC on Sunday, Nabi will have become one of only two coaches in the league aged 60 and above.
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The only other coach in the PSL aged 60 or over is Gavin Hunt, who is now in charge of Durban City.
Hunt is 61 and started his coaching career in the professional ranks with Seven Stars 30 years ago straight after the end of his playing career.
He is in his ninth job coaching in the PSL.
Nabi will celebrate his landmark 60th birthday on Saturday faced with the bigger responsibility of washing away all doubts around him and justifying why he is still the calling the shots at the Glamour Boys.
For all the jobs that he has held in Libya, Sudan, Egypt, Tanzania, and Morocco, this current one has placed him under the heaviest scrutiny.
That he won the Nedbank Cup and ended the decade-long trophy drought in his first season didn’t dilute speculation around his future.
So, his second year with the club will be worth more than gold.
The Tunisian-Belgian hasn’t impressed all at the club and the best way to negotiate his second season will be good football and winning matches more often than he has done since accepting this job.
Last season, Nabi took the side from bad to worse in the league by winning less games than Molefi Ntseki and Cavin Johnson put together throughout the previous campaign.
While Ntseki/Johnson put in a combined 30% winning mark, with Nabi it dropped to 28,57%, conceding more goals despite a season which came out two games shorter.
Amakhosi lost 43% (12 out of 28) of their league games and ended with less than half the points available to play for.
That defeat percentage was the worst for the club in the league throughout their PSL history going back to August 1996.
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So, not only does Nabi need to find ways to winning games more frequently, he will also be pressed to take Chiefs in the direction of challenging for the league title if not winning it as per the expectations at the club.
The Soweto giants will this season play in the Betway Premiership, Carling Knockout, Nedbank Cup, and the CAF Confederation Cup.
Photo: Philip Maeta/Gallo Images
