Romain “Fohloza” Folz, the French-born AmaZulu FC coach who was removed from his position this week as the club’s losses mount, has been described as “a fraud” who must never again be given a coaching job in the elite league of South African football.
That’s what the Sunday Times was told by sources at the Durban club after owner Sandile Zungu realised that Folz, who recently signed a three-year contract extension, could plunge the club into relegation.
“To be honest, the guy is a fraud and he must never get a coaching job in the country. I just don’t know how he managed to get contracts here in South Africa but I think he has been found out,” an insider told the Sunday Times this week.
Attempts to get comment from Folz, who is now the technical advisor to Zungu, were unsuccessful as the club said they wanted to focus on the remaining matches.
“The club will not want to dwell on this any further. I can’t even share the phone number (of Folz) because internally we’ve dealt with what needs dealing with,” AmaZulu spokesman Brilliant Mkhathini said on Saturday.
Folz, who holds a Uefa Pro licence, was unknown in South African football before Marumo Gallants appointed him head coach ahead of the start of the 2022-2023 season. Folz had been a coach at Township Rollers in Botswana between December 2021 and June 2022.
I just don’t know how he managed to get contracts here in South Africa but I think he has been found out
— AmaZulu insider
The 32-year-old began his coaching career as an assistant coach at Golden Eagles, a college team in the US, in 2017. Before he got the Rollers gig in 2021, Folz had short stints with several teams in African countries including Egypt and Ghana, and also worked as assistant manager for Mauritania and Uganda national teams.
It was a surprise when Zungu appointed Folz last October because he had been sacked at Gallants after failing to win a single match in eight DStv Premiership ties, only bringing in six points as he lost the other two games.
Zungu pulled the plug on Wednesday after Folz had only managed to win three matches out of 15. The others were eight draws and four defeats, including the last one (1-0) at home against Swallows FC, who are also fighting relegation.
With six matches to finish the campaign, Usuthu are now in a precarious position in the Premiership where only five points separate them from bottom-placed Gallants ahead of the weekend matches.
A defeat in their trip to Cape Town City this afternoon, where caretaker coach Ayanda Dlamini will be in charge, will keep them among teams trying to stave off the axe.
The insiders pointed to Folz’s insecurities as one of his major downfalls. “Some of the players started questioning his methods at training because they realised he was not getting the best out of the squad.
“Some of the things didn’t make sense from a preparation and tactical point of view. When players started asking questions and trying to help him, I think he felt offended. The players were not trying to offend or undermine him. They were trying to help but he ran to the management to bad-mouth them.”
A week before Folz’s redeployment, the club released defender Ramahlwe Mphahlele and midfielder Keagan Buchanan as their relationship with Folz was deemed to have become untenable. But both players were recalled this week after Dlamini, a former Usuthu striker, was installed to steer the ship until the end of the season.
“As we speak, they are back in the team and he (Folz) is the one who has been sidelined, maybe because the management realised that they were not given the real story.”
Since buying the club from Patrick Sokhela three years ago, Zungu has not hesitated to dump coaches whenever he felt they were not bringing in the desired results.
Benni McCarthy, currently a strikers’ coach at Manchester United, was appointed by Zungu in 2020 and they finished second behind Mamelodi Sundowns in the Premiership in 2020-2021 season.
But when McCarthy struggled to maintain the same results the following season, he had to make way for Brandon Truter in March 2022. AmaZulu finished in the top eight in the 2021-2022 season under Truter but he too was sacked and replaced by Folz.
With three years still remaining in Folz’s new contract, Zungu said he will keep him at the club in an advisory role. “I have retained him as a technical director, primarily to advise the president (Zungu) on the technical aspects of vision 2032 until the end of the season. He is not to interfere with the day to day running of the team,” Zungu was quoted as saying in the AmaZulu statement on Tuesday.
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