The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube Sports Correspondent
CHICKEN INN championship winning coach Joey Antipas could join the great trek to South Africa where he has reportedly signed on for that country’s First National Division side AmaZulu. According to impeccable sources, Antipas, who led the Gamecocks to the title last year, is set to join AmaZulu on 1 July on a two-year contract.
A source in South Africa said AmaZulu had snapped up the coach after AmaZulu parted ways with Steve Barker a fortnight ago. “Yes, it’s true they have been in talks with Antipas and we are tying up some loose ends but he is joining at the beginning of next season,” he said.
Antipas would be tasked with taking the Durban-based club back to the Absa Premiership, a team that was relegated at the end of the 2014/15 season.
The former Motor Action coach’s stock has been rising since winning his second championship on the domestic scene and taking his charges to the Caf Champions League and although they were, ironically, booted out by South African side, Mamelodi Sundowns in the preliminary stages they impressed in both legs of the encounter especially after winning the first match in Bulawayo.
Antipas has proved to be tactically astute and one of the top coaches to emerge from Zimbabwe and winning the championship with two different clubs puts him into good steady.
An official at Usuthu, as AmaZulu are known, said they had made huge investments in bringing in several players at the beginning of the season but they had not produced the desired results and they were hoping Antipas would be able to fuse youth and experience to create a team that would ensure an elevation to the Premiership.
“We paid handsomely for experienced players but they did not bring the required results so we are now focusing on bringing young players who can make the difference,” said the team official who declined to be named, adding that they had been following Zimbabwean soccer on Supersport and particularly impressed with Chicken Inn’s style of play.
AmaZulu elevated former Bafana Bafana player Delron Buckley to caretaker coach following the sacking of Barker.
