Gerry Saurer

Gerry Saurer (* 1945 in Austria ; † July 1992 in Kenya) was an Austrian hotelier and soccer coach , including the Kenyan national soccer team .

Switzerland and Seychelles

All that is known about Gerry Saurer's time in Switzerland is that he was a hotelier and coach of amateur soccer teams.

In the Seychelles he was the manager of a hotel on the small granite island L'Islette off the coast of Port Glaud and of the Pirates Arms Hotel in Victoria . He was also the team leader of the junior national soccer team.

Kenya

Before November 1981, Saurer moved to Nairobi , Kenya and became the manager of the 680 hotel . As before in Switzerland and the Seychelles, he also coached football teams in Kenya.

In 1983 Gerry Saurer was hired as assistant coach to Robert Kiberu under AFC Leopards ' President Alfred Wekesa Sambu and took over the position of head coach the following year. He won the CECAFA Club Cup with AFC Leopards in 1983 and 1984. Under Saurer, AFC Leopards reached the semi-finals of the African Cup Winners' Cup in 1985 and thus survived the first round of a continental competition for the first time in 17 years.

In 1985 he founded Volcano United FC with David Otti and Joe Kadenge , Kenya's first professional soccer club, which appeared in the Kenyan second division in 1986. At the first Moi Golden Cup in 1986, Saurer reached the third round with the team and won 2-0 against the overpowering AFC Leopards. In the same year he carried out the Motokura Cup , founded by a Japanese businessman in the previous year , in which Kenyan teams played against teams from Belgium, Japan and the Netherlands.

From the 1987 season he played with Volcano United in the Kenyan Premier League (KPL), the highest league in Kenya. In 1988 the club was dissolved. During his time at Volcano United, he later discovered successful players such as Wycliffe Anyangu , Hassan Juma , Davies Oyela , Gabriel Olang and Patrick Kisanya .

In 1990 Gerry Saurer took over from Mohammed Kheri as head coach of the Kenyan national team and at the same time founded the first U20 national team in Kenya. Saurer was considered a successful youth scout , as most of the U20 players he signed made it to the national team; including Sammy Omollo , Vincent Kwarula , Allan Odhiambo and Peter Mwololo . He recruited players not only from the KPL, but also from the second division and regional leagues.

As a national coach, however, Saurer was controversial. Although he reached the CECAFA Cup final in 1991 and in 1992 - as the only non-Kenyan coach to date - the preliminary round of the African Football Championship , the players were dissatisfied. There were media reports about his lack of qualification as a football coach and that he only got the position through his friendship with KFF President Adams Karauri . Therefore, the players performed poorly to provoke his expulsion - they lost both preliminary round matches of the African Cup. Saurer himself blamed the players Micheky Weche and Vitalis Owour for the defeats. The last game of the African Cup, a 3-0 defeat against Senegal , was also his last game as national coach for Saurer. He was fired that same year and his predecessor Mohammed Kheri was reappointed national coach.

Gerry Saurer died of malaria in July 1992 .

successes

society

• Kenyan Championship, second place: 1985.
• Moi Golden Cup , third round: 1986
• CECAFA Club Cup winners : 1983, 1984
• African Cup Winners' Cup semi-finals : 1985

National team

• CECAFA Cup final : 1991
• Football Africa Cup of Nations - preliminary round: 1992

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f} Francis Nandi: Twentieth anniversary; Gerry Saurer. (No longer available online.) Kenyanstar.co.ke, May 16, 2012, archived from the original on January 9, 2014 ; accessed on January 9, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
2. ↑ Reclamation works at L'Islette Island soon. In: Le Nouveau Seychelles Weekly. August 9, 2010, accessed January 9, 2014 . 
3. ^ ^{A b} Recalling the Last Mercenaries Who Stayed in Nairobi City . In: The Standard . March 19, 2003 ( allAfrica.com ).
4. ↑ David Forster, Bernhard Hachleitner, Robert Hummer, Robert Franta: "The Legionaries" . Austrian footballers all over the world (=  Austrian cultural research . Volume 12 ). 2nd Edition. Lit Verlag , Vienna 2013, ISBN 978-3-643-50205-6 , p. 306 .
5. ↑ Leopards No Longer Have Claws . In: The Standard . July 17, 2005 ( allAfrica.com ).
6. ^ ^{A b} Kenya Football in the 1980s. Kenya, accessed January 9, 2014 . 
7. ^ Kenya in the Nations Cup: A History of Futility. (No longer available online.) KenyaFootball.com, archived from the original on January 9, 2014 ; accessed on January 9, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
8. ^ Francis Nandi: Sofapaka FC: Volcano United's re-incarnation? (No longer available online.) Kenyanstar.co.ke, March 27, 2012, archived from the original on January 9, 2014 ; accessed on January 9, 2014 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ The best youth team Kenya has ever produced. Kenya, February 3, 2013, accessed January 9, 2014 . 
10. ↑ ^{a b c} Kenya Football in the 1990s. Kenya, accessed January 9, 2014 . 
11. ^ Nations Cup Briefs . In: New African . tape 194 , March 1992, ISSN  0142-9345 .
12. ↑ Jurulatih dipecat . In: Straits Times Press (ed.): Berita Harian . March 26, 1992, p. 15 ( online ).  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
13. ^ Transitions, 1992 . In: The Weekly Review . January 8, 1993, ISSN  0252-9157 , p. 19 .
14. ^ Roaring Success. In: The Observer . May 19, 2002, accessed January 9, 2014 .