Orlando Pirates have kept the coaching changes pendulum swinging at pace with their decision to appoint Moroccan-Frenchman Abdeslam Ouaddou as their new head coach.
Ouaddou takes over from Jose Riveiro, whose three-year stay was completed by Mandla Ncikazi on an interim basis after being lured by Al Ahly.
As crazy as this may sound, the 2025/26 season will be the 15th consecutive campaign that the Soweto Derby will be played without the same coaches on either end at the helm for two years in a row.
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Yes, both Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs have not had the same men overseeing the biggest fixture for two consecutive campaigns since the 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons when the two clubs had Rudi Krol and Vladimir Vermezovic respectively.
For all the other years, there has been a change of coaches in the second season at one of the two clubs when the Soweto Derby is played.
It was Riveiro and Nasreddine Nabi, but the former has since left.
The previous season paired Riveiro with Cavin Johnson, while in his first year at Pirates, the Spaniard had Arthur Zwane on the opposition end.
Then, for the 2021/22 campaign, it was Stuart Baxter at Chiefs and the pair of caretaker co-coaches Mandla Ncikazi and Fadlu Davids at Pirates, while the previous season had Gavin Hunt (Chiefs) and Josef Zinnbauer (Pirates).
For 2019/20, Ernst Middendorp was in charge at Amakhosi, while Rulani Mokwena called the shots at their rivals in the first league match between the two clubs for that season, before he was then replaced by Zinnbauer.
The season before, it had been Milutin Sredojevic at Bucs, while with their old enemy, they had Giovanni Solinas, who was then replaced by Ernst Middendorp.
With the 2017/18 campaign, it was Steve Komphela for the third year Naturena, while the men in Black and White had Sredojevic after he took over from Kjell Jonevret, who had taken over the baton from Eric Tinkler.
Baxter ran the show for three years before Komphela was appointed at the Glamour Boys, and at that time Pirates changed from Roger De Sa to VV and then Eric Tinkler.
Then, in the 2011/12 season, it was Julio Leal and Augusto Palacios at Pirates, with VV in charge for his third season at Chiefs.
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In all the years prior to Krol and VV going head-on two years in a row, there was no pair of coaches that led the two clubs in both Soweto Derby meetings for two seasons in a row.
Chiefs went from Walter da Silva for their first league meeting of the 1996/97 season to Paul Dolezar, Muhsin Ertugral, Doctor Khumalo and Ace Khuse, Ted Dumitru, Middendorp and then Ertugral again, before VV was then appointed in 2009.
Pirates have had Ronald Mkandawire, Shaibu Amodu, Viktor Bondarenko, Dumitru, Gordon Igesund, Jean-Yves Kerjean, Roy Barreto, Augusto Palacios, Kosta Papic, Sredojevic, Bibey Mutombo, Owen Da Gama, with Krol then arriving in 2008.
Photo: Daniel Hlongwane/Gallo Images
