Football - Gavin Jeanne named national team head coach |22 March 2018

Gavin Jeanne is the head coach of the Seychelles national football team and his appointment took effect on January 1, 2018.

Speaking to Sports NATION, the former coach of Cascade-based The Lions, said his main task is to prepare the team for the Indian Ocean Island Games (IOIG) to be held in Mauritius in 2019.

But firstly, he is preparing a team to face Swaziland in a friendly match on March 27, 2018 at Stad Linite. This will be in preparation for Seychelles’ involvement in the Council of Southern Africa Football Association (Cosafa) Castle Cup competition that will take place from May 27 to June 9, 2018, in South Africa.

The last time the two teams met was in the Cosafa Castle Cup in 2016 and Seychelles lost 0-4.

One of the biggest tests for the national team this year will be when they meet African football giants Nigeria on September 7 at Stad Linite in the African Nations Cup (Can) Cup qualifiers. Seychelles lost their first match 1-5 against Libya in group ‘E’ which also includes South Africa.

Coach Jeanne’s experience with the national team was as acting coach for two matches against Congo in Can 2012 qualifiers.

The Seychellois coach will soon be signing his work contract and he decided not to go public with his nomination all this time because he was still negotiating the terms and conditions of his two-year contract with the SFF.

Coach Jeanne was chosen for the job among two other contenders ‒ Cliff Nolin of Northern Dynamo and Rodney Choisy of St Michel ‒ after he impressed the coaching selection penal from the SFF with his presentation in December 2017.

In his presentation, he touched on the working strategy if he was chosen to take charge of the national team and on “building a winning team for the next Indian Ocean Island Games”.

Jeanne said he didn’t show any interest in taking charge of the national team as he only took the opportunity to do the presentation as he wanted to voice out some concerns but he changed his mind after he got the support of some players.

“I had been approached before by the SFF to take charge of the team but I did not show any interest even prior to the presentation. I took the challenge after some players who were with the national section knew I was nominated for the job and they encouraged me as they said they would love to see me work with the team this time. This inspired me to take up the job,” said coach Jeanne.

The 38-year-old Jeanne has chosen Côte d’Or head coach James Barra as assistant head coach, Nelson Sopha as goalkeeper coach and Sam Moses as medical officer. But he is still waiting for a response from St Roch’s coach Gerard Gonthier whom he has chosen to be the team’s manager.

With his main task being the preparation of the team for the IOIG 2019, coach Jeanne intends to use the remaining Can qualifiers and Cosafa Castle Cup games as match practice.

“We know that Seychelles is having great difficulty to compete at continental level and we will use games as match practices. I have taken charge of the national team and we have to accept that its level is at the lowest at the moment and in the last game against Zimbabwe, Seychelles lost 0-6. So, this is the situation of the team which I am taking charge now and I have to work to push it to reach a higher level,” he said.

Coach Jeanne added that upon doing his research, over the last two years Seychelles conceded 56 goals against and scored 11 in 22 matches played and this reveals the enormous task ahead of him and his coaching team have to do to stop the team from leaking goals and to be more creative in offence so as to score more goals.

He said that a lot of hard work needs to be done to “not only win a gold medal but a medal at the IOIG 2019”.

“Actually we have to accept that we are not in a very good position in the Indian Ocean region. After the IOIG 2015, Seychelles lost against Mauritius, lost twice against Madagascar and we have lost the most games and conceded the most goals, won the least games and scored the least goals than all the other countries in the Indian Ocean. This is the challenge I am faced with,” he said.

As for the team selection, 23 players will be called up for training every month based on their performance in league matches during the month and training will be on held every Sunday and Monday.

Coach Jeanne has refuted allegations that he left The Lions for the national team as he explained that he decided to leave the club on grounds that he was tired of forming players only to be poached by other bigger clubs and this has been the case for the last six years.

“I had retired from coaching any local team at that moment and it was a pure coincidence that at that moment I was nominated to take charge of the national team,” he added.

The team selection for the match with Swaziland next week are:

Goalkeepers: Jerome Dingwall (Red Star Defence Forces), Alvin Michel (St Michel);

Defenders: Bertrand Esther (St Louis), Damien Maria (St Louis), Yannick Manoo (St Michel), Benoit Marie, Jones Joubert (Côte d’Or), Don Fanchette (Anse Reunion), Andrew Onezia, Warren Mellie (Red Star Defence Forces);

Midfielders: Andy Brioche, Colin Esther (Côte d’Or), Travis Laurence (St Louis), Rashim Padayachy (The Lions), Basil Bertin (St Michel), Gervais Waye-Hive (St Louis);

Attackers: Perry Monnaie (La Passe), Karl Hall, Elijah Tamboo (St Louis), Leroy Coralie (St Michel), Francis Nourrice (Foresters).

Missing is a third goal keeper.

P. J.