It’s been over four years since Luc Eymael coached in the PSL, when he was on the bench for Black Leopards in 2019. After leaving Mzansi, he went on to join Tanzanian giants Young Africans in January 2020, although his spell with the club ended disappointingly after he was accused of making racist remarks to the team’s fans. On two occasions in 2020, Chippa United tried to appoint the Belgian mentor as a member of their technical team but the appointment was rejected by the South African Football Association and other stakeholders. In March 2021, the former Free State Stars coach was cleared to work in Mzansi again by SAFA, but he has had no luck in getting a club in the PSL ever since. The 64-year-old has had talks with AmaZulu FC and Richards Bay FC, among other clubs, but to no avail. Currently in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where he is in charge of Aigles du Congo, Eymael opens up to Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina in this interview about the struggles he encountered in searching for a club, as well as the failed talks with the two KwaZulu-Natal sides. He also talks about his conversation with Tunisian coach Nasreddine Nabi on how close he was to coaching Kaizer Chiefs.
Masebe Qina: Coach, long time. What has it been like at your new club Aigles du Congo?
Luc Eymael: I have been with the club since January, and I came here to help the team with their participation in the play-offs. The way they do the play-offs here is that the first four teams from Lubumbashi compete against the first four from Kinshasa. During my first time here in 2010, I was with a well-known team, AS Vita Club. But I am now with a new team that is only seven months old. It’s a team with a lot of very young players and the oldest one in the group is only 24 years old. It has been an advantage and disadvantage at the same time. The advantage of the youth is that they can push until the end, but the disadvantage is their lack of experience. Sometimes they can make mistakes that cost the team, but the chairman is ambitious, and he understands that it won’t be easy. We are competing against teams with experience of playing in CAF competitions and it’s not easy and all the games are very tough.
