The former Amakhosi mentor has been strongly linked with Bucs after his former colleague joined the Houghton-based giants
Orlando Pirates have responded to reports linking them with Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Steve Komphela.
The Soweto giants have been credited with an interest in Komphela with Pirates’ current head coach Josef Zinnbauer’s future with the club reportedly uncertain after the team failed to clinch Caf Champions League qualification in the recent 2020/21 season.
Bucs finished third in the PSL and have been inconsistent in the competition. Fans have called for Zinnbauer’s dismissal and there have been reports indicating that the four-time PSL champions are seriously considering parting ways with the German tactician.
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The Daily Sun reported how Pirates administrative officer Floyd Mbele has refuted the Komphela speculation and he insisted that Zinnbauer remains the club’s head coach.
“We have a coach. I don’t know where those rumours come from,” Mbele told the same publication.
“We have never brought another coach while another one is there and say he must take over.”
The two coaches (Komphela and Ncikazi) have a good relationship having worked together at KwaZulu-Natal clubs Arrows and Maritzburg United with Ncikazi serving as Komphela’s assistant.
Ncikazi took over as Arrows’ new head coach when Komphela left the club for Sundowns in October last year and the 52-year-old mentor steered Abafana Bes’thende to their highest finish in the PSL as they finished fourth in the league.
The former AmaZulu FC defender’s achievement at Arrows has since earned him a big move to Pirates as the Soweto giants beefed up their technical team ahead of the 2021/22 campaign.
Komphela won his first major trophy as coach at Sundowns, who clinched the 2020/21 PSL title, but he was working under the club’s co-head coaches Manqoba Mngqithi and Rhulani Mokwena
The 53-year-old tactician failed to win a trophy during his three-year stint with Kaizer Chiefs as the club’s head coach despite leading the Soweto giants to the MTN8 and Telkom Knockout finals in 2015.
He coached the South Africa U20 and U23 national teams, before serving as Bafana Bafana’s interim coach in 2012.
