Kanzari Gets Paid/Mnari Gets Injured

Only a week after the end of their tournament, The coach of the U17 World Cup team, Maher Kanzari, has already managed to reap the full benefits of his teams impressive displays by landing an assistant coaching job at his former club l’Esperance (EST). While a side of me is happy for him, I do have my reservations about the move: Firstly, I hope his new position doesn’t completely replace his post as youth coach for the national teams. Following our loss to France he was quoted as saying that he’d be helping the same group prepare for the upcoming U20 World Cup. I know thats a few years away, I wonder where his focus will be. Continuity is the key if the group that performed so well last month can continue on the path of success. Throughout the tournament, almost all the players were saying that they are a cohesive team because they’ve been playing together for four years under the same coach. When you take that into consideration, it is truly crucial for Kanzari to remain dedicated to the U17s and U20s. As of right now, I’m not entirely sure whether he’s still in charge of the youngsters. I haven’t heard anything to the contrary though so I’m assuming (and praying) that he’s going to do the two jobs side by side.

I can’t say that it’s surprising to see Esperance bring him on board. The team is based in the capital, Tunis, and has been a giant of Tunisian and African football for many years but they have fallen on hard times recently. They had a miserable season by their high standards last year and have started this one in a tumultuous environment with their last coach, Benzarti, quitting after just one game. They currently sit in 13th place with a solitary point from two games and are out of the African Champions league as of last week. It’s unfamiliar territory and I can see why they’re looking in any and all directions for quality coaching. Kanzari will offer that. Hopefully he will also pick out some kids that can be added to the potential U20 squad. I just hope he doesn’t do THAT good of a job of motivating the EST senior players because I like the Tunisian League standings as they are right now, with my Club Africain at the top If you’re an EST fan and you’re reading this though, don’t worry. I will not tarnish their image in any of my entries. If I had a CA blog that would be another story, but since this is a Tunisia Football blog I’ll remain as unbiased as possible. Besides, EST fans shouldn’t worry too hard: Their team is the best funded one in the country, the administration is well organized, and with time and effort they are capable of reaching the form that saw them win seven consecutive league titles from 1997 onwards.

In other news, Jawhar Mnari, who has been training with the national team in preparation for their match against Sudan is injured and will be returning to Germany where the Bayer Leverkusen staff will assess the damage. No word yet on the severity of the injury. Right now it’s simply being qualified as “pain” by the Tunisian media. Talk about effective reporting, who woulda thought pain would be implied? I’ll be sure to report the site and intensity of the pain as well as the the estimated recovery time when I hear more about this. Not sure if Lemerre will or is even allowed to bring another player into the fray right now. My guess is that he’ll use a player that has already been called up. Who do you think will replace our midfield stud in this game?

UPDATE:

Its his back. I’m guessing back spasms… Thank you letemps.