James Madidilane is making a dramatic return to Bantu.
The South African coach is much loved in Mafeteng after leading ‘A Matšo Matebele’ to back-to-back league titles in 2017 and 2018 and news of his appointment will surely delight the district.
Madidilane will replace Bob Mafoso who surprisingly resigned as Bantu coach on Monday to focus on his duties with the national team, Likuena.
Madidilane joins on an initial six-month deal, which will be music to the ears of Bantu fans who still fondly remember the swagger of his championship winning sides.
The former Bloemfontein Celtic defender briefly became an assistant coach for Likuena before leaving the country in 2019 where he had been coaching at various clubs in the ABC Motsepe League, the third tier of football across the border.
Bantu’s chief financial officer, Pitso Tšasanyane, said the club is ready to work with Madidilane to defend their Vodacom Premier League title.
He joins Bantu with the team in third place, five points behind leaders Matlama with 14 games still to go in the season.
Tšasanyane said Madidilane already knows the team’s system and goals and he believes the two sides can once again partner up to win the league.
“We will work with him to see that everything is still on the right track. We are lucky that Madidilane will not receive bad news that players are not paid or any other issues. The team is settled in all departments and I hope we can continue to work that way,” Tšasanyane said.
Madidilane’s first game in charge will be a tough one, a home tie against sixth-placed Linare on Sunday.
Bantu, however, will be hoping things go just as well as they did when Bob Mafoso returned to ‘A Matšo Matebele’ last year.
Mafoso took the reins at Bantu last April with the club stuttering and duly inspired them to the league title.
However, Mafoso’s role was complicated in June when he took up a bigger role within the Lesotho national team setup when he became assistant coach to Likuena’s caretaker boss, Leslie Notši.
Mafoso ultimately resigned last week citing the heavy burden of coaching two big teams.
Mafoso said he had chosen to focus on the national team, which begins its Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) preliminary qualifiers in March.
The Econet People’s Cup tournament is due to be played at the same time while the league title race will most likely just be heating up.
Mafoso said he does not want Bantu or Likuena to suffer or be blamed for the other team’s performance.
Mafoso’s resignation quickly followed that of Notši who stepped down as Linare coach last week.
“Dealing with the pressure level of the club and the national team is not easy,” Mafoso said.
“There is too much pressure (and) we do not give clubs enough time that they might need because of these (national team) commitments,” he added.
Mafoso said it became impossible to focus on two jobs, especially when Likuena are on international duty and train at the same time as Bantu.
Mafoso said he found himself unable to cope with the pressure because he had to focus more on the national team while his club duties suffered.
“To me as a person, it is a real pressure to deal with the two big teams in terms of massive supporters and expectations,” Mafoso said.
“Another thing,the clubs might think that when things are not going well, I am the cause because I am not giving them enough time.”
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