Leopards keen on luring Zimbabwean coach Pasuwa to their den
AFC Leopards are eyeing former Zimbabwe national team coach Callisto Pasuwa, the media in Harare has reported.
But talks between the two parties have reportedly stalled and the respected trainer, who is now based in Malawi, is likely to remain at champions Nyasa Big Bullets.
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The Standard of Zimbabwe has reported that Leopards have identified Pasuwa to help them stop the dominance of bitter rivals Gor Mahia.
In recent years Ingwe have lost their way in Kenyan football and finished a distant seventh in the eighteen team league last season.
The club is said to be keen on bringing Pasuwa on board to restore their lost glory.
If the deal succeeds, Pasuwa could have become the second coach after Zdravko Logarusic to handle both the Zimbabwe national team and Leopards.
Current Zimbabwe coach Zdravko Logarusic was coach of AFC Leopards in 2015 after having also coached Gor Mahia between 2012 and 2013.
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Coincidentally, FC Platinum coach Henrik Pieter De Jong also coached AFC Leopards in 2014, a year after Logarusic had left the Kenyan club.
Pasuwa’s star has risen since he took charge of Dynamos in 2010, leading the popular Harare club to four consecutive Castle Lager Premier Soccer League titles from 2011 to 2014.
That success earned him a job with the Zimbabwe national team — the Warriors — and he did not disappoint, qualifying Zimbabwe to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals in 2017.
Upon return from the Nations Cup finals in Gabon, Pasuwa left the Warriors for Big Bullets job and has led the Malawian club to two successive league championships in the two years he has been in control of the club.
Leopards’ former captain Anthony Kimani has been holding brief since Rwandan Andre Casa Mbungo quit the club following a pay dispute last December.