By Timotios Baye and Festus Chuma
Former Ethiopia coach Tom Saintfiet is not ruling out a possible return to coach the Walia Ibex.
The 43-year old left his post voluntarily in 2011,six months after he was named the head coach of Ethiopia national team.
Saintfiet who played a role in guiding Ethiopia team composed of local players, to a 2-2 draw against African giants Nigeria in the 2012 AFCON qualifiers in Addis Ababa Stadium says he is ready to make a return to the team should the opportunity avails.
“Since the moment I had the honour to coach Ethiopia I always loved the country, the fans and most of all the players. I would love to return to Ethiopia, and build further on what I did in 2011, but this time for a longer period. So if the opportunity arises I will be very interested and honoured,” he told Soka25east.
Saintfiet described good time he had with the national team as he felt at home with the Walia Ibex, a team he would want to built to reclaim their lost glory.
” When I left in 2011, I left a well organised team who knew how to play, how to defend but also how to attack… We scored 2 goals against a strong Nigeria, 4 against Madagascar.
“The time I arrived we had no player abroad, now some players got the experience abroad what strengthen the team. I wanna talk also with the local coaches, to hear their experience, their advise… only together we can guide Ethiopia to AFCON 2019,”he added.
The Belgian trainer who joined Yanga,and later Togo after a successful short stint with the Walia Ibex has enriched his profile which he describes can suit the current situation at the national team.
“I won in 2012 the last CECAFA Cup for Young Africans (Yanga), and naturally I gained a lot of experience as National team Coach in and outside Africa. I coached now 53 official FIFA matches, worked in East, South and West Africa, and with some World Stars like Adebayor. I guided in 2014 a Belgian First Divsion club in 12 games from place 8 to 4 and into the promotion play-offs.
“With Togo we were on the way to qualify when i left after 14 months… I had worked under 3 different FA Presidents and board plus 2 different Ministers of sport in 14 months time,”Saintfiet adds.
When asked to comment about the local league and the culture of football in Ethiopia,Saintfiet praised the league that he closely follows stating that the fans and the players are always amazing.
“When I arrived in May 2011,everyone told me that Ethiopia is not a football country. However, the reverse is true. The fans are wonderful and its amazing to see how many people love the game, such as the game with Nigeria in Addis Ababa got about 30,000 specatators, they sang the anthem is still the most special goosebumps moment of my coaching career,was fantastic. But also when you watch the league match and see teams as Saint George, FC Buna (Ethiopian Coffee) and other teams it’s amazing how the fans celebrate the game and their teams, Forexample, when I watched football in Yirgalem and saw 10,000 fans celebrating the game, i said just wow!.
“Second quality of Ethiopia is the players, who are skillful, diverse and very disciplined. I loved working with the guys and they have so much more potential than they and others believe. Lastly, the strong league with professional and well organised teams,Ethiopian league is so underestimated but the local clubs and their coaches are doing a great job,”he said
However, Saintfiet was not much succesful in the last assignment as Banglandesh national team coach where he had signed a short three month contract in June 2016.
In the start of his tenure Bangladesh lost 0-5 away to Maldives in an international friendly, the biggest defeat in Saintfiet’s career so far. But the team bounced back with a 0-0 draw at home with Bhutan national football team team in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification match where Saintfiet has come to explain why he left.
“I resigned last week as coach of T&T only after 35 days. I could not work there, to many things what stopped me of doing my job in a decent way, I don’t want to go in details but it was not what I expected, the reason I resigned so quick was clear, I knew I could not do my job and it would limit my chances to succeed, I knew right now many jobs are/or will be available in africa and I prefer to work here in a professional way instead of there in an unprofessional. so i am free since one week… to be ready for a new task… it was a risk to resign that fast, but i had to to protect myself and my career”, he explained.
