Football
Exclusive: Tusker Engaged Coach Romain Folz to Replace Robert Matano
Tusker FC nearly appointed Romain Folz as their new head coach after Robert Matano's departure, but the deal fell through. Interim coach Charles Okere will now lead the team for the season, with hopes of a strong performance.
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League outfit Tusker FC were on the verge of appointing Romain Folz as their new head coach before the deal failed to materialize.
The coaching role at the Ruaraka-based club became vacant at the end of last season after Robert Matano, who had won them two titles, left to take charge at Sofapaka.
Matano, nicknamed the ‘Special One’, had guided Tusker to a second-place finish in the FKF Premier League behind eventual winners Gor Mahia. This was the second season in a row that Tusker had finished second behind K’Ogalo, who in the process won a record 21st league title.
Romain Folz Was Main Target to Replace Matano
Speaking to SportBoom.com at the sidelines of the FKF Special General Meeting (SGM) on Saturday, August 24, Tusker chairman Charles Gacheru revealed the club’s intentions to hire the services of the 34-year-old French tactician as a successor to Matano.
“When Robert (Matano) left we had plans to bring in a foreign coach, and from the start we engaged two foreign coaches and one of them was Romain (Folz),” Gacheru told SportsBoom.com.
Folz is the kind of coach we felt would come in and fit in well at Tusker, I personally talked to him and tried to convince him to take up the role but it never worked, in fact we talk even up to today. I was confident he would come on board but it never worked.
Gacheru
“He is a top coach, who understands well African football having coached around for a while and it was my hope he could come in and help Charles Okere (our interim coach) grow. If you look at my phone, you can see my negotiations with him (Folz), it never worked and I decided to let it go.”
Gacheru continued: “We even tried to bring him on board as the technical director but nothing worked.”
Folz, who in 2018 coached American side West Virginia United, has coached a number of teams in Africa including Premier Soccer League (PSL) outfit AmaZulu. At AmaZulu, he came in as a coach in 2022 to 2023 before he was redeployed as a technical director.
Image Credit: Tusker Media
In 2019, he was appointed assistant manager of Uganda. After that, he was appointed assistant manager of Pyramids in Egypt while in 2020, he was appointed manager of Ghanaian club Bechem United.
In 2021, he was appointed manager of Ghanaian team Ashanti Gold and was later named the manager of Township Rollers in Botswana. In 2022, he was appointed manager of South African side Marumo Gallants.
Charles Okere to Stay as Coach for Entire Season
Gacheru confirmed Okere, who was promoted to the interim role, will be in charge of Tusker for the rest of the season.
“We missed on our target and settled for Okere, he will be in charge of the team, he took the team through pre-season and the morale in camp is very high, so we don’t have to get another coach, Okere will do it for us,” offered Gacheru.
Asked whether Tusker will consider hiring Okere on a permanent basis, Gacheru said: “You never know, we just wait and see, I may wake up one morning and give him a two-year contract to sign.”
Okere was in charge of the Brewers as they toured Uganda for pre-season winning two matches and drawing one. They beat Soltilo Bright Stars 1-0 in their opener, followed it up with another 1-0 win against Uganda Stanbic Cup champions Kitara FC before drawing 1-1 against Lugazi FC.
Speaking after their final game of pre-season, Okere said as quoted by the club’s official website: “It has been a hugely successful week and we have managed to see where we are as a team. We played three friendly matches and every player had at least 60 minutes of action and this is very key for us to give everyone an opportunity to show what they can do.
“Now we are going back home with about two weeks before the season starts and we know what to work on, which areas to improve to ensure we are ready for the first game of the season.”
Okere started his reign with a 1-0 FKF Premier League win against Sofapaka on Saturday, August 24. In a closely contested encounter at Kenyatta Stadium in Machakos, Chris Erambo’s goal proved the difference as the Brewers got off to a flier.
Dennis is a seasoned journalist in Kenya with over 18 years of experience. Having started his career at Kenya Times Newspaper, Dennis worked for Standard Newspaper for nearly six years as a Sports Writer. At Standard, he was privileged to cover Kenya's national team Harambee Stars outside the country, the biggest of all being the Four Nations tournament in Cairo, Egypt. He also covered the U17 team in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.