Patrick Phiri

Patrick Phiri (born May 3, 1956 in Zambia ) is a Zambian soccer coach and former soccer player . He has been a technical advisor to the Namibian national soccer team since mid-May 2014 .

Player career

Phiri played as a winger for Rhokana United in the 1970s and then in the early 1980s for the Zambia Air Force- backed Red Arrows .

In 1978 he was part of the Zambian national team for the 1978 Africa Cup . He was used as a substitute.

Coaching career

After the end of his career, he was sent to Germany to train as a coach. After completing his training, he returned to Zambia in 1987 and coached his former club Red Arrows until 1991. 1995-1996 he sat in the coaching bench of league rivals Power Dynamos .

In 1995 he was employed by the Zambian Association and took over the U20 national team, which he led to the U-21 African Cup of Nations in 1997 , but failed there in the preliminary round. He was then released, but returned to the U20 coaching bench in 1998 after his predecessor died in office. He managed to lead the team to the Junior World Cup in 1999 , which was the first time a Zambian team took part in a World Cup. The team won the first game 4-3 and then drew 0-0 against eventual world champions Spain. In the last group game against Brazil, the team took the lead 1-0 after nine minutes through Andrew Sinkala , but ultimately had to admit defeat to the later world stars Ronaldinho and Mancini 5-1. In addition to his involvement in the Zambian Association, he coached his former club Rhokana United from 1997 to 1999 - now under the name Nkana Red Devils .

In the same year he was able to celebrate winning the COSAFA U20 Cup with the U20s with a 2-0 final victory over arch-rivals South Africa. He then went to Tanzania for a short time and trained the Simba SC there . In 2002 he succeeded Roald Poulsen from Denmark . Under Phiri, the Zambian senior team missed participation in the African continental tournament for the first time since 1988 and he was dismissed after a defeat in the COSAFA Cup against Botswana.

Phiri trained again for the Tanzanian club Simba SC, but had a serious car accident this season, which brought his hitherto successful engagement to an abrupt end. After his recovery he became Technical Director of the Nkana Red Devils. When Kalusha Bwalya did not renew his contract as Zambian national coach in 2006, and the favorite for his successor, Ben Bamfuchile , accepted the coaching post in Namibia, Phiri was again national coach as an interim solution.

With victories at the COSAFA Cup in 2006 and the CECAFA Cup in the same year, Zambia won an international tournament for the first time since 1998 and at the same time he consolidated his position as national coach. In qualifying for the 2008 African Cup of Nations, it looked for a long time that Phiri would fail again. Only after a surprising 3-1 away win on the last day of the match against South Africa was it still possible to qualify at the last moment. After the team finished third in the final tournament behind Egypt and Cameroon and thus eliminated in the preliminary round, Phiri was dismissed and replaced by Hervé Renard .

Web links

• Biography on zambianfootball.net

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Patrick Phiri lands Namibia top job. Lusaka Times, May 13, 2014. Retrieved May 15, 2014