Ivory Coast coaching candidates take centre stage in Africa

Former Rennes boss Frederic Antonetti is one of the finalists for the Ivory Coast post.

With most domestic leagues still enjoying their off-season, the focus remains on coach and player movements across the African continent. This week, the current champions, Ivory Coast, narrowed their search for a new manager, while there were some big moves being mulled by players from South Africa and Ghana. And there is some on-field action, as a country that has not hosted an international in more than a year has been given permission to stage a match. Here’s the news round-up:

Who will coach the champions?
In their quest to replace Herve Renard, Ivory Coast narrowed their 59-man list of candidates down to five, and the smart money could be on Frederic Antonetti.

He is the only person on the shortlist who has not coached internationally before, something Ivory Coast may be drawn to. Before Renard, they gave Sabri Lamouchi his first international job and although his tenure did not end well , Lamouchi took the team to the 2014 World Cup.

Antonetti is up against men who have extensive experience in Africa: Patrice Neveu coached Niger, Guinea, DRC and Mauritania; Paulo Duarte was in charge of Burkina Faso and Gabon; Michel Dussuyer had three spells with Guinea and one with Benin and Henryk Kasperczak managed Tunisia, Morocco, Mali (twice), Senegal and Ivory Coast themselves. Kasperczak was with Ivory Coast more than 20 years ago, between 1993 and 1994.

Mashiamate’s big (apple) move
Originally the most dramatic news out of South Africa’s offseason was the announcement that Kaizer Chiefs were dispensing with former national captain Itumeleng Khune. But then this week news broke of something that could turn out to be bigger: Another Kaizer Chiefs player who the club decided not to re-sign, Tefu Mashiamate, was linked to a club in Major Soccer League.

Reports in local newspapers state that Mashiamate has been training with Frank Lampard and David Villa at New York City FC and was considering a move to further both his footballing and academic career. Mashiamate holds a degree in Politics and International Relations from the University of the Witwatersrand, where he began his playing career at BidVest Wits, and may want to pursue further studies in the U.S.

And some other moves
But not everybody has spent the break finding opportunity. Ghana’s Sulley Muntari requested his own release from AC Milan, the club he joined in 2012, with two years left on his current contract. Muntari’s agent, Fabio Pastorello, told the Milan channel that the midfielder “realized his time at AC Milan was finished,” and “didn’t want to be a burden on the club,” after making just 12 Serie A starts in the past season.

Muntari has had a long association with the Italian city, having previously played for Inter Milan, but will likely have look elsewhere for a new team. It appears that a move to England is most likely with Muntari being linked to Everton .

The Premier League was not the destination of choice for Senegal’s Demba Ba though. He is headed to Didier Drogba’s former club in the Chinese league, Shanghai Shenhua, for a fee believed to be €13.5 million.

Liberia’s ban lifted
Liberia was officially declared Ebola free on May 9, after 42 days of no new cases, which opened the door for football to make a return to the country after an absence of 13 months. Their ban was lifted by CAF this week, with Guinea, who have also been affected by the virus, set to become the first team to play in Liberia since May 2014, when Lesotho lost there.

Guinea go into the fixture — a qualifier for the 2016 African Nations Championship, which is the tournament in which only domestic-based players compete against each other — with a 3-1 lead on aggregate, but Liberia will hope they can finally make a home advantage count, especially as it may be short-lived. Liberia reported three new cases of Ebola this week and if the epidemic returns, chances are the ban will too. The two other countries most affected by the outbreak, Sierra Leone and Guinea, remain unable to host matches.

Based in South Africa, Firdose is a cricket, football and rugby correspondent for ESPNCricinfo, ESPNFC & ESPN.co.uk