Kanalelo steps down as Brave Warriors assistant coach
Football
Ronnie Kanalelo has stepped down as Brave Warriors assistant coach after the national men’s football team’s Cosafa Cup final match defeat to Angola.The Brave Warriors lost 5-0 to Angola on Sunday in what many compatriots felt as a humiliating defeat in Gqeberha, South Africa.
The 53-year-old former Brave Warriors goalkeeper, who has been the assistant of the team on several stints including during Ricardo Mannetti’s time, took to social media to announce that his time with the national team had come to an end.
“As I bow out for the last time with the Brave Warriors, I want to thank you for the support over the last two years. Your appreciation is well noticed, family and friends.
“My friend, brother and trainer of the ‘mannschaft’ (Collin Benjamin), it was really an honour to serve as your assistant, you called and I had no other options but to say yes, I will run the race with you.
“Keep up the good work and don’t take your foot off the paddle.
“I know you don’t agree with my decisions but you know, after 6 months of consideration I decided to pull the plug, all the best Ga,” Kanalelo wrote.
Kanalelo assumed his first duties of assistant coach under Ricardo Mannetti from 2013 to 2019, before leaving the position.
He returned to assist current coach Collin Benjamin from 2019 until last Sunday.
Kanalelo was born in Okongo, in the Ohangwena Region close to the Angolan border, but moved to Walvis Bay at the age of two.
There, he started playing football alongside future national team mate Eliphas Shivute at Kuisebmond township side Super Stars.
He played senior football from 1991–1997 with Eleven Arrows, Blue Waters and Black Africa in the Namibia Premier League and professionally from 1997–2005 with Mamelodi Sundowns in South Africa, living up to his nickname ‘The Magnet’.
He also played internationally with Namibia from 1992–1999, including the country’s African Cup of Nations debut in Burkina Faso in 1998.
Kanalelo is the current coach of African Stars, appointed halfway through their most recent Debmarine Premier League winning campaign to replace Mervin Mbakera. He was also previously on the coaching staff of Unam FC, Black Africa, Tigers and Tura Magic.