Mamelodi Sundowns have secured Romain Folz as their new assistant coach and when looking back at previous statements, he’s highly regarded by coach Manqoba Mngqithi.
This website broke the story on Friday evening that the 34-year-old was introduced to the squad in Austria where they are currently in pre-season.
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It’s his third stint in South Africa after Marumo Gallants and AmaZulu, where he’s now left his role as a Performance Manager in the FIFA Technical Group under Arsene Wenger to get back into the coaching space.
Mngqithi, who’s currently the most senior figure in the technical team based on his job description, previously mentioned he was left with a positive impression by Foz.
“I know many coaches that would play very good football and normal circumstances but when you are always looking on your backside, am I losing this job? You are bound to take strategies to save the job more than improving the standard of football in a particular team,” he said in the 2022/23 season about foreign coaches in the league.
At the time of his statement, Romain Folz had just arrived at Marumo Gallants at the age of 31, where he then parted ways with the club due to alleged interference from management and then moved to AmaZulu where he was later relieved of his duties after 19 games in charge.
The French Moroccan then had stints with Horoya and then FIFA as a Performance Manager before returning to South Africa as the new Sundowns assistant coach, pending the official announcement of the club.
While his impact in the Premier Soccer League was questioned by certain sections of the media and supporters, at the time Mngqithi felt he brought something of substance to the league with his style of play.
“When I see other teams really bringing in coaches trying to play and play it feels very good, I must be honest there was a coach [Romain Folz] that was employed by Marumo Gallants, I thought he was bringing something to South African football.
“I watched that team very closely and I was very impressed with what he was doing, and when coaches bring the right time of game, the right specimen of the South African game, because we’re all thinking we all deserve to win, in football you must accept that sometimes you don’t win not because you have not played well but the game of football will always favour others.
“And we’re not saying we don’t want foreign coaches to come and improve our game, good foreign coaches, when they come and impact positively towards [our game] we appreciate.”
