Grobbelaar interested in being next coach of Zimbabwe

By Stanley Kwenda

Former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar has expressed his desire to be the next coach of Zimbabwe.

His comments come a day after the Zimbabwe FA (Zifa) dismissed Croatian Zdravko Logarusic and his coaching team after poor results in World Cup qualifying.

After a goalless draw with South Africa, the Warriors lost 1-0 to a last-minute goal in Ethiopia to sit bottom of Group G with back-to-back games next month against Ghana.

"I have been watching the Zimbabwe Warriors for some time and I have had my CV in there a couple times to no avail," he told BBC Sport Africa.

"I know these players are talented. Wherever you look, in every department, they are very good. They need a father figure. From the time of (former coach Reinhard) Fabisch, they haven't had a father figure - instead, it's all about the politics.

"But when you get a person who knows this group of players, their customs, they can play. I know all those and I know I can help them."

"What I see with this bunch of players in Zimbabwe is the finest of players we have had for a long time."

Bruce Grobbelaar: 'I'm too honest to get work in South Africa'

Being 'driven insane'

The 63-year-old, who won 32 caps for Zimbabwe between 1980 and 1998, is convinced the current Warriors' squad is underachieving.

"It's a shame that they are not nurtured and pushed into the right direction and that drives me insane," he added.

"I look at them and say - why are they not getting through to the World Cup? Yes they are through to the African Cup of Nations, but that was with one win and two draws - that tells me that they got there by default."

Towards the end of his career, Grobbelaar had brief stint as the player-coach of the Zimbabwe national team.

Following his retirement, he had coaching stints in South Africa and Canada and now currently works as a Liverpool club ambassador and a performance consultant for Norwegian second-tier outfit Øygarden FK.

Zimbabwe qualified for next year's Nations Cup finals, their fourth in a row, in Cameroon under Logarusic but this month's World Cup results cost the Croatian his job.

Criticism of Logarusic had grown since last January when Zimbabwe were beaten by hosts Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Mali to make a humiliating early exit from the African Nations Championship.

Zifa is set to appoint an interim coach ahead of October's World Cup qualifiers as it searches for a permanent replacement.

This article originally appeared on BBC Sport

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