Renowned coaches have applied for the vacant Squirrels job.
Soka25east has confirmed that Atoine Hey,Pieter de Jongh,Steve Komphela and Patrice Neveu have all declared interest in the job.
Former Amavubi coach Hey coached Rwanda at the 2018 Africa Nations Championship before asking for termination of his contract after the team bowed out of the tournament that was held in Morocco in January this year.
The German coach has experienced over a decade in African football, having managed the national teams of Lesotho, The Gambia, Liberia and Kenya. He’s also overseen Tunisian side US Monastir and Sudanese giants Al-Merreikh.
Pieter de Jongh has an impressive record of handling teams in four countries, South Africa ,Kenya, Rwanda and Swaziland where his one-year contract with the national team was cut short last year after a CHAN qualifiers loss to Zambia.
He also coached various clubs outside Africa namely VRC in Veenendaal, FC Dordrecht, Vitesse Delft, AZ Eredivisie. He was later appointed director of Budapest Honvéd academy and also served as technical director for Budapest Honvéd.
Komphela,50, is certainly no stranger to international football. The former Bafana Bafana defender who enjoyed a spell in Turkey during his playing days, was previously the caretaker coach of the South Africa senior men’s team back in 2012 and has also coached several PSL sides.
Neveu, 63, is highly experienced after previously managing Niger, Guinea, DR Congo and Mauritania on the continent.
It is still unclear when Beninese Federation (FBF) will name the new Squirrels coach but have National Executive Committee meeting in a month’s time where candidates will be shortlisted.
Oumar Tchomogo contract expired in December last year and the Federation through the advice of Minister of Sports Oswald Homeky, decided not to renew it.
The new manager’s first competitive game will be in September away to neighbours Togo and the main task will be to lead Benin to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Benin began their 2019 campaign with a comfortable 1-0 win over visiting Gambia and will fancy qualifying for Cameroon with Algeria the other team in Group D.
The Squirrels have only made three appearances at the Nations Cup tournament in 2004, 2008 and 2010 but the West Africans have failed to qualify for the last four tournaments.
