French tactician Sébastien Desabre has been unveiled as the new Uganda national team head coach.
Desabre’s appointment follows his slight edge amongst a final four candidates who had been shortlisted to take up the position made vacant by the departure of Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojevic in July. It included; interim coach Moses Basena (Ugandan), Emilio Ferrera (Belgian) and Northern Irishman Jonathan Mckinstry.
The 41-year-old has been the head coach of Egyptian giants Ismaily Club in recent times. He resigned this week following a confirmation from Fufa that he had been handed the Cranes job.
Desabre arrived at Entebbe Airport in Kampala just hours after leading Ismaily to a 5-1 win over El Raja in his final match in charge of the side on Wednesday.
“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.
“I’ve worked for a long time in Africa and I know a lot about African football. I am ready to serve the Cranes.”
“I am ready to serve the interests of football in Uganda. My good experience in Africa will be very vital,” Desabre stressed Thursday.
The Federation of Uganda Football Associations (Fufa) added that Desabre will work closely with all of Uganda’s development teams.
He will have Mathias ‘Salongo’ Lule as his assistant.
Uganda will be Desabre’s first national team job but he has 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 the likes of Esperance in Tunisia and Wydad Casablanca in Morocco.
He started coaching duties with French side ESC Rocheville as assistant and later head coach between 2004 and 2010.
Sébastien Desabre’s immediate duty with Uganda Cranes will be to assemble and prepare a formidable team for the 2018 Chan tournament in Morocco where Uganda Cranes is pooled in Group B alongside Zambia, Cote D’Ivoire and Namibia.
