Uganda names Frenchman Desabre as new football coach

Frenchman Sebastien Desabre has been unveiled as the new coach of Uganda’s national team.

The new coach was unveiled by Uganda’s football governing body, the Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) which revealed that he has been appointed on a two-year deal to replace Milutin Sredojevic who resigned in July.

Desabre arrived in Kampala just hours after leading Ismaili to a 5-0 win over El Raja in his final match in charge of the Egyptian club on Wednesday.

His first task will be to prepare a team of locally-based players for next month’s African Nations Championship (CHAN) in Morocco.

“I’m happy to be in Uganda to coach the Cranes and I’m ready for the challenge to make millions of Ugandans happy,” he said at his unveiling.

Fufa welcomed the new coach to Uganda saying “government was fully involved in the entire process. Desabre will supervise all the national development teams (U-23, U-20 and U-17) because FUFA’s philosophy is to build football from the grass-roots”

While Desabre has never coached a national team, he does have a lot of club experience, mainly in North Africa with spells in Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco.

His North African stints have seen him take charge of teams içncluding Esperance in Tunisia and Wydad Casablanca in Morocco.

“I’ve worked for a long time in Africa and I know a lot about African football. I am ready to serve the Cranes.”

The 41-year-old Desabre, who has been coaching Egyptian league club Ismailia, was one of four names on a shortlist released by the Uganda Football Federation (FUFA) early this month to take over the vacant post. Desabre will be assisted by Ugandan Mathias Lule as assistant coach and Fred Kajoba as goalkeeping coach.

The other candidates in the list formulated by a selection panel headed by Zambian football legend Kalusha Bwalya were Moses Basena, who has been serving as the team’s interim coach, Belgian Emilio Ferrera and Johnny McKinstry from Northern Ireland.

The Cranes have been without a full time coach since Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic terminated his contract over the issue of unpaid wages in July.

Desabre told journalists in Uganda that he is not too bothered about the issue of wages and payments as he takes on his new role.

On salaries new Uganda coach Seb_Desabre is vague says he’s not bothered about contracts but with the project at hand which he says is good.

— Catherine Byaruhanga (cathkemi) December 28, 2017

Sredojevic led Uganda to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Gabon, the first time the Cranes had reached the finals since 1978.

Ugandans will be hoping that Desabre takes the country to even greater heights starting with the CHAN tournament in January next year.

Uganda are drawn in Pool B alongside Zambia, Ivory Coast and Namibia.