Mohammed Bajaber Gets New Coach as Simba Beats Kaizer Chiefs to Highly-Rated South African Tactician

Harambee Stars forward Mohammed Bajaber is set to play under a third coach at Simba after the club brought in a highly-rated South African coach.

Simba have been without a coach since sacking Bulgarian Dimitar Pantev last month, who had lasted just two months at the club.

Wekundu wa Msimbazi have therefore replaced Pantev with South African Steve Barker, who has ended his eight-year spell at Stellenbosch FC, in what was a shocking move.

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Barker has been the longest-serving coach in the South African top flight, having joined Stellenbosch in 2017, and saw the club become a major force that challenged for the top positions on the table despite their limited resources.

Stellies finished third in the last two seasons, sealing a place in the CAF Confederation Cup, and reached the semi-final last term, a historic feat for the club, as well as back-to-back MTN8 finals, losing to giants Orlando Pirates on both occasions.

Barker has also nurtured a lot of players at Stellenbosch, most of who now play for either Pirates, Mamelodi Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs, while some secured moves abroad but he kept losing his stars every season, making it hard to build a title-winning team.

The 57-year-old will be tasked with ending Simba’s league title drought after rivals Yanga won the last four while the club is also in the CAF Champions League.

Hiring Barker is a major coup for Simba as the tactician has been linked with a move to Kaizer Chiefs, who will likely be looking for a new coach ahead of next season, while Mamelodi Sundowns have also been credited with an interest.

Barker will be the third coach Bajaber will be working under after South African Fadlu Davids and Pantev and the Kenyan could enjoy a new lease of life as the former Stellenbosch tactician likes technical players like him.