Romanian Marinica beats ex-Chiefs man to Zimbabwe job

Romania-born Englishman Mario Marinica has been appointed as the Zimbabwe football team’s new coach, beating former Kaizer Chiefs handler Stuart Baxter and others to the job.

 

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The forthcoming Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) finals will be the most immediate assignment for the UEFA Pro-Licence holder who last worked with Liberia in 2024.

Baxter had reportedly emerged as among the front-runners for the post which had fallen vacant following the sacking of Michael Nees. The contract for the German was terminated due to poor performance in the FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign  after finishing at the tail-end of Group C in the African region.

Nees was shoved out after registering two wins in 14 games, just barely enough to book a ticket to the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Morocco this December.

Despite boasting top players such as Luton FC’s Marvelous Nakamba, Divine Lunga of Mamelodi Sundowns, ex-Kaizer Chiefs duo Knowledge Musona, Khama Billiat and Wolverhamption Wanderers’ Marshall Munetsi, the Warriors finished group qualifiers without a win a 1-0 loss to lowly Lesotho testing the patience of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) to the final limit.

How Marinica fared with Malawi national team

ZIFA settled for Marinica, who took the already-qualified Malawi to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) round-of-16, at the expense of the other shortlisted coaches namely ex-Mozambique trainer Luis Goncalves, Patrice Neveu (formerly of Guinea) and Antonio Conceicao whose last flirtation was with Cameroon.

Apart from working for Malawi and Liberia, Marinica has managed and been in executive roles for clubs in Africa such as Black Leopards in South Africa and Tanzania’s Azam FC.

Marinica will lead the Warriors to Qatar for friendlies against the hosts and Algeria later in November. Coincidently, the Romanian’s reign with Malawi started in a similar manner. He led the Flames to Qatar for friendlies ahead of the 2021 AFCON in a caretaker capacity after the demotion of Meck Mwase who had earned Malawi qualification.

Marinica, a believer in fast and direct football, which antagonized many in Malawi was eventually named the Flames coach but his permanent reign was not a success.

The Football Association of Malawi decided against extending the Romania-born coach’s one-year contract after a disastrous outing in the 2023 AFCON qualifiers which saw the Flames losing 2-0 and 4-0 to Egypt.

Earlier, there have been calls from Zimbabwe football circles to consider hiring highly rated Pitso Mosimane but it appears either he did not apply for the job or he was not shortlisted.

The Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation online also reported that former Tottenham Hotspur manager Harry Redknnap and ex-Norwich City’s Chris Hughton applied for the job.