Ajax boss reveals talks with Benni over head coach job

Ajax Cape Town chairman Ari Efstathiou says he held a number of meetings with Benni McCarthy with a view to him coaching the GladAfrica Championship leaders‚ but the Bafana Bafana legend turned him down.

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McCarthy is currently without a coaching job after he was fired by Cape Town City in November last year.

Speaking to TimesLIVE, Efstathiou said he held talks with McCarthy after their head coach Andries Ulderink resigned in sympathy to suspended goalkeeper-coach Hans Vonk in late January.

“At the time that we got the resignation from Andries Ulderink we were sitting with about a two-point lead with 11 games to go‚” Efstathiou is quoted as saying.

“We were a bit concerned of what the next best move would be. Because we didn’t want to bring in a strange coach who was going to try and bring in different methods on a train that was running perfectly on track.

“And we felt at the time that Benni might come in and change not necessarily much of what we were doing‚ but rather bring his management skills.

“And I did have several meetings with him and he was very keen to come.

“But I think the problem with his family being away [in Scotland]‚ and I don’t think his wife [Stacey Munro] wanted to return to SA‚ and his view was that he wanted to further his career on a European stage were the reasons for not coming to us.

“There was never a discussion of money. We never got to it.”

“It didn’t happen and we gave the position to Calvin [Marlin]‚ and look at the results. Sometimes things happen for a reason. Calvin has been outstanding.”

Before the PSL decided to suspend the league action because of the coronavirus outbreak, Marlin had steered Ajax to seven points clear of second-placed Swallows FC with six matches remaining in the 2019/20 GladAfrica Championship.

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