Kaizer Chiefs Target Fernando Da Cruz as New Head Coach
Kaizer Chiefs’ rebuild has found its focal point. All roads now appear to lead back to Naturena for Fernando Da Cruz.
The Frenchman has emerged as the frontrunner to take over as head coach ahead of the 2026/27 season, with talks already held and internal preference at the club tilting firmly in his direction, according to FARPost.
Clear-out to make way for a new era
Chiefs have not tiptoed into this new phase. They have kicked the door open.
Co-coaches Cedric Kaze and Khalil Ben Youssef are gone. Goalkeeper coach Ilyes Mzoughi and conditioning coach Majdi Safi have also exited, part of a sweeping overhaul of the technical team after a 2025/26 Betway Premiership campaign that ended in third place.
This is not a tweak. It is a reset.
Within that reset, the club has spoken to two main candidates: Da Cruz and Portuguese coach Alexandre Dos Santos. Both have been sounded out. Both have had their cases considered. But the momentum inside Chiefs now sits squarely with Da Cruz, who has moved into pole position as the preferred choice.
A familiar face with unfinished business
Da Cruz is not a stranger walking into Naturena. He is a returning figure.
The former AS FAR Rabat coach recently resigned from his role as Technical Coach at the Royal Moroccan Football Federation (FRMF), freeing him for a club project of this scale. Two years ago, he worked inside the Chiefs environment, appointed as assistant to Nasreddine Nabi while the Tunisian was still wrapping up his duties with AS FAR.
Those weeks and months mattered.
Within the club, Da Cruz is remembered for the structure of his sessions, the intensity he demanded and the professionalism he carried into every department he touched. People inside Chiefs saw a coach who could organise, who could drive standards, who understood what a big institution requires day to day.
That stint did more than just impress the hierarchy. It gave both sides a chance to study each other up close. Da Cruz learned the club’s long-term vision, its operational rhythms, its expectations. Chiefs, in turn, learned how he works and how his methods might scale if he took the top job.
Now, with the head coach’s seat vacant, that brief chapter looks like the prelude to something larger.
Da Cruz ready for the call
Information obtained by FARPost indicates that Da Cruz is open to taking charge at Naturena if negotiations are concluded successfully. The door is not just ajar; it is waiting to be pushed open.
His availability arrives at a perfect moment for Chiefs. With the technical department stripped back, the club has the freedom to build a new structure around a clear leader. The idea on the table includes a blend of international expertise and local knowledge, with South African coaches and support staff expected to form part of the revamped backroom team.
Those conversations are still live. Titles, roles, reporting lines – all of it remains under discussion. But the framework is obvious: a foreign head coach at the helm, plugged into a technical team that understands both the league and the club’s support base.
Germany camp looms as key deadline
Time, though, is not a luxury.
Chiefs’ preparations for the new season are already accelerating. The squad is due to regroup on 22 June, and by then the club aims to have its coaching structure locked in. The clock is ticking towards a major pre-season tour that will test and shape whatever new regime walks through the door.
In July, Amakhosi are scheduled to head to Germany for a pre-season training camp. There, they will face European opposition in a series of friendlies – a crucial laboratory for new ideas, new systems and, potentially, a new head coach laying down his blueprint.
A camp of that intensity demands clarity. Chiefs do not want to arrive in Europe still debating who leads the team talk.
Rebuild extends beyond the dugout
The shake-up is not confined to the bench.
On the pitch, Chiefs have already moved to strengthen. Thabo Moloisane has agreed to join the club after his departure from Stellenbosch FC, the first confirmed piece in what is expected to be a wider reshaping of the squad ahead of 2026/27.
More arrivals are expected. More exits too. Chiefs are not hiding the scale of the rebuild; they are leaning into it.
Third place in the league has provided a platform, not a destination. The question now is simple: can the club find the right figure to turn structural change into silverware?
All signs suggest they believe Fernando Da Cruz is that figure. The next signature will tell.
