AFCON 2015: The Tacticians

Though 16 tacticians will be in the dugouts for their various teams at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea, only 3 nations will be handled by African coaches.  Congo DR will be guided by Florent Ibengé with South Africa being supervised by Ephraim Mashaba while Honour Janza handles Zambia at the continental tournament.

Of the 13 expatriate coaches who will be at Equatorial Guinea 2015 tournament, French coaches are in the majority with 5 tacticians including Congo’s Claude Le Roy, Herve Renard of Ivory Coast, Michelle Dussuyer of Guinea, Senegal’s Alain Giresse and Algeria’s Christian Gourcoff.

Ghana’s Israeli trainer Avram Grant remains the most experienced tactician amongst the 16 trainers after enjoying coaching stints at Chelsea, Portsmouth, West Ham, Partizan Belgrade and the Israeli national team.

1988 AFCON winner Claude Le Roy, who led Ghana to the third place finish in 2008, and Polish trainer Henryk Kasperczak are the two most experienced trainers amongst the 13 expatriate coaches on the continent so far.

Belgian trainer Paul Put, who shocked the African continent when he led Burkina Faso to the final of the AFCON two years ago, is the only coach from the South Africa 2013 who has been maintained and will be making a second successive appearance.