Following Nabi’s exit from Kaizer Chiefs in October 2025, the club promoted assistants Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze into interim co-coaching roles as they guided the team through the remainder of the campaign.
Speaking to iDiski Times’ Lorenz Kohler after his departure, Ben Youssef admitted he struggled to understand the concept.
BEN YOUSSEF QUESTIONS THE STRUCTURE
The Tunisian and Cedric Kaze achieved 19 wins, 11 draws, and 9 losses across 39 matches during the 2025/26 campaign.
In domestic football, the duo steered Amakhosi to a third-place finish in the Betway Premiership with 54 points. This marked the club’s second-highest points tally in eleven years, but it did not discourage the club from releasing the duo.
However, they finished the season without silverware and missed out on a CAF Champions League spot. On the continental stage, they led the club through the CAF Confederation Cup group stage. The team earned 10 points in Group D but narrowly missed the knockout phase on goal difference.
“The idea of a co-coach, I didn’t know before,” Ben Youssef told iDiski Times. “For 15 years, I didn’t hear about co-coaches in my life; you never hear of this all over the world.
“Only the head coach and assistant coaches. Last year, I remember with AmaZulu, I saw it for the first time with coach Arthur Zwane, and I started to ask questions,” he added.
The Tunisian tactician suggested the arrangement could create uncertainty over who has the final say on football decisions.
DECISION-MAKING COMPLICATIONS
Ben Youssef explained that sharing responsibility between two coaches could make team selection difficult, especially if opinions differ.
“Even me – it was difficult to understand, like who takes the decisions? Because it’s two coaches, if the one prefers that right-back and the other prefers the second one.”
His remarks provide a rare insight into the challenges of Kaizer Chiefs’ coaching setup and raise questions about whether the co-coaching model was effective during the club’s transitional period.
