Pagels Keen On Return To Zimbabwe Warriors Bench

Former Zimbabwe national team head coach Klaus Dieter Pagels has expressed interest in the vacant Warriors job after Joey Antipas announced his shock resignation this month.

The 70-year-old was at the helm back in 2013, but the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) did not renew his contract after he failed to meet his target of taking Zimbabwe to the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

Speaking in an interview, Pagels has said that he cannot turn down the opportunity if given, for him to finish his project which came to an abrupt end six years ago.

“I am really interested. I am ready to come and work under a revised contract as long ZIFA are able to craft a reasonable package,” he told government-owned daily, The Herald.

A source close to Pagels also informed the same publication that the German coach was “more than willing” to come back to Zimbabwe and coach the Warriors.

“Pagels said he wants to take Zimbabwe to its first World Cup in 2022 in Qatar and I personally think a good scenario will be Pagels as head coach with Joey Antipas and Lizwe Sweswe coming in as his assistants,” said the source.

Currently, the German is working on and off as a pundit but a management job in Africa is where he see his future.

Pagel was named head coach of the Warriors near the close 2012 following Zimbabwe’s failure to qualify for the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations finals.

He was the third German to take charge of the Zimbabwe national team, after Rudi Gutendorf and the late Reinhard Fabisch, who was one of the most popular Warriors coaches, having taken the team to within one game of qualifying for the for 1994 World Cup finals.