Mario Marinica from Romania was named by Zimbabwe this week as their new coach in place of the German Michael Nees, fired after the conclusion of the World Cup qualifiers last month.
Nees had been in the post for just over a year, and while he helped Zimbabwe to qualify for the Cup of Nations finals in a group where they finished second to Cameroon, they did not win a single one of their ten World Cup qualifiers – six of which were played under him.
The final straw was the 1-0 loss to Lesotho in Polokwane in their last game. Marinica has six weeks to prepare for the Cup of Nations finals, a similar situation he faced with Malawi for the 2021 tournament in Cameroon.
There he was parachuted in by Malawi as their coach for the tournament, with their previous coach, the former Jomo Cosmos defender Meke Mwase, downgraded to assistant.
Malawi progressed to the last 16 as one of the four best runners-up, after beating Zimbabwe, but Marinica’s time with the team was restricted because of the strict COVID-19 testing at the time that saw many coaches and players isolated away from their squads.
Marinica took over at Liberia for the 2025 Cup of Nations qualifiers but was sacked halfway through the campaign when it became clear they would not qualify.
The 60-year-old previously worked in South Africa at Black Leopards when they were in the National First Division but lasted one month.
A statement from the Zimbabwe Football Association claimed “Marinica has worked with several prestigious clubs and national teams including Arsenal FC, Chelsea FC, Internazionale Milano, AS Monaco, Liverpool FC, and Tottenham Hotspur,” which is a massive stretch.
His CV says he was an under-15 coach at Arsenal and went to Inter on an exchange programme.
Zimbabwe will be South Africa’s last Group B opponents at the Cup of Nations in Marrakech on December 29.
Bafana open the tournament against Angola in the same city on December 22. They fired long-standing coach Pedro Gonçalves in reaction to their disappointing World Cup qualifying campaign but did not take long to install Frenchman Patrice Beaumelle, who previously worked with Palancas Negras as an assistant coach.
Tanzania, who are in Group C at the AFCON finals, also sacked their coach Hemed Suleiman Ali this week and have replaced him with the well-travelled Argentine Miguel Gamondi.