Free State neighbours moving closer to appointing new coaches

The two Free State clubs in the Premier Soccer League are moving closer to finalising new coaches more than a week after their players returned from holidays to prepare for the new season.

Free State Stars hope to conclude the appointment of a successor to Serame Letsoaka over the weekend while Bloemfontein Celtic are negotiating with a Serbian coach‚ according to insiders.

Stars general manager Rantsi Mokoena said on Thursday: “I am hoping to have everything arranged by the weekend.

"We are closed to finalising.”

As to the identity of the coach‚ he added: “Let’s just say to go out of the country to find a coach is too risky.”

Stars had been linked with Black Leopards’ Belgian-born coach Jean Luscuito‚ who resigned earlier this month to take up the Stars job but who still has a contract with the Limpopo club and whose chairman David Thidiela is not willing to let go without some compensation.

Celtic are in talks with a Serbian coach‚ thought to be either Vesselin Jelusic or Dragan Jovic.

Jelusic coached InterClube in Angola and then the national team and later moved to Botswana where he was also national team coach.

He then spent five years working on developing the country’s youth structures‚ being credited with being behind the leap in competitiveness that the country has shown over the last decade.

Jovic won the league in Angola with army club Primeiro Agosto last year and they are joint top at the halfway stage this year.

Celtic officials were not available for comment.

- TimesLIVE