Stuart Baxter says that he’s not closed the door on a return to South African football, but that it would not be his only option whenever football is given the all-clear to return.
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The former Kaizer Chiefs, SuperSport United and Bafana Bafana head coach is currently taking a break from the game after leaving his post with the South African national team last year, but the Coronavirus outbreak has obviously thrown a spanner in the works as he weighs up the next step in his career.
Baxter won two Absa Premiership titles, three Nedbank Cup titles and an MTN8 title with Chiefs and SuperSport respectively, and last year took Bafana to the African Cup of Nations quarterfinals for the first time since 2013.
There has been talk recently of a possible return to the country for the 66-year-old, though while it’s not something he’d be against, he insists that there’s nothing on the cards for it to happen as things stand.
Speaking from his home in Sweden, Baxter told the crew, “Look, nothing during my time in South Africa over the years would make me decide to fully close the door on a return… I spent a large chunk of my adult life in South Africa, I have many great friends and colleagues there, and currently have family of mine living there. Of course a return would never be completely off the cards.
“But that being said, it would have to be the right project for me, and there’s been contact from other parts of the world that could be genuine options for me once the Coronavirus pandemic has sorted itself out a bit. There have been no offers from South Africa, and that’s the situation right now.
“As I said, I’ve got a lot of time for South Africa, it’s a wonderful country and I have great memories there. Does that mean that return is imminent? No. But I’m weighing up a lot of things and obviously nothing can happen while the world is going through what it’s going through currently anyway.”
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Baxter won the PSL Coach of the Season awards in 2012/13 and 2014/15 after leading Chiefs to two league titles in three years, and has also won silverware in Japan and Sweden during his career.
