With less than two weeks left for the mega event to commence, all the eight participating clubs in the CAF Women's Champions League have fastened their belts, tighten their laces and are fully charged to fire in the tournament.
Just as the players and teams themselves, there will be a mix of well-known coaches leading their sides at the Champions League finals, along with some unknowns and lesser lights. There will be six of them making their first appearance in the finals, while two others are on their second outings.
Here are all the coaches set to guide their clubs to triumph at Morocco 2022:
AS FAR
Name: Mohamed Amine Alioua
DOB (Age): 36
Records: 1 Moroccan League title (2022), 1 Throne Cup (2022)
Active years: 14
Mohamed Amine Alioua will be one of the first timers on the sidelines during this year's competition. Before now, he has been part of AS FAR project since 2008, although as the youth coach. His successes with the age-grade teams catapulted him to the head coach role of the women's side in December 2021.
Since then, he has led the team to a domestic double, guiding them to celebrate the Moroccan League and Throne Cup titles. Last year's third-place winners in Egypt will set their sights on the title, Alioua will be carrying the burden of propelling them to victory on the continental stage, notably on Moroccan soil.
MAMELODI SUNDOWNS
Name: Jerry Tshabalala
DOB (Age): 42
Records: 4 South African league titles [2013, 2015, 2019 and 2021]; Cosafa Women's Champions League title [2021]; CAF Women's Champions League title [2021]
Active years: 15
Tshabalala is the only manager to have won the TotalEnergies CAF Women's Champions League in history. His storied coaching career began in 2009 when started with Detroit Ladies and led to the South African league title before he joined Luso Africa Ladies in 2010.
In 2012, 'Kappa' as popularly called, was signed by Mamelodi Sundowns ladies and won the club's first South African crown within the space of 12 months. In 2021, under his watch, they celebrated a treble for the first time, including a fourth league diadem, the inaugural COSAFA and Caf Women's Champions League titles respectively. As the defending champion, Tshabalala remains the man to beat on his second appearance.
DETERMINE GIRLS
Name: Robert Lartey
DOB (Age): 49
Records: 10 Liberian Division 1 league titles; 2 Liberian Division 2 league titles, 5 Liberian Division 1 league titles [2021]; WAFU-B Women's Champions League title [2022]
Active years: 21
Lartey is no stranger to the football community in Liberia as he has won no fewer than 17 trophies with various clubs across the divisions in the men's domestic leagues.
Arguably the most successful coach in Liberia, Lartey currently handles the senior women's national team and has previously handled several men's top-flight clubs, including LISCR, and BYC, Watanga FC, which he guided to the league title in 2021 before recently joining Bea Mountain in May 2022.
In August 2022, the tactician was drafted in to lead Determine Girls and he delivered by inspiring the team to regional success for the first time and maiden Caf Women's Champions League qualification. In Morocco, his experience, achievements and pedigree will be relied upon in the Liberians' glory hunt.
WADI DEGLA
Name: Wael El Sayed
DOB (Age): 49
Records: 14 Egyptian Women's league titles(2 as head coach) - 2021, 2022), 7 Egyptian Cups, 1 North African Champions League title [2021]
Active years: 20 years
Sayed is a household name within the women's football community in Egypt following his impactful journey with Wadi Degla. Sayed has played a prominent role in 14 Egyptian league titles haul with the club and seven Cups.
In 2008, he joined the club as an assistant coach before his elevation to the head coach role, and under his coaching, the team won back-to-back titles in 2021 and 2022, and recently the 2022 North African Club Championship in Morocco, and ensured a back-to-back appearance at the Champions League finals. After a disappointing group stage exit on home soil, Sayed's experience will be banked on to amend his errors of 2021.
GREEN BUFFALOES
Name: Charles Haalubono
DOB (Age): 43
Records: 5 Zambian Premier League titles [2016, 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022], 1 Inaugural Charity Shield [2019], 1 COSAFA Women's Champions League title [2022]
Active years: 18 years
Charles Haalubono featured in the domestic circuit of Zambia during his active years as a footballer from 1999 to 2004 before he ventured into coaching. In most of his playing days, he starred for youth and senior levels for Green Buffaloes.
Three years after settling for coaching in 2004, he was named coach of Green Buffaloes, and under his watch, they have won five Zambian league titles.
His successes at the club level saw him rewarded with the Zambia U20 head coach post in 2019 when he guided the team to a second-place finish at the COSAFA U20 Women's Championship. In 2021, he inspired Green Buffaloes to a third-place spot at the inaugural Cosafa Women's Champions League qualifiers and returned to take them a notch above, winning the title in September 2022. On his first stint at the finals, the Zambians will be counting on Haalubono to replicate his local and regional feats on the continent stage.
BAYELSA QUEENS
Name: Domo Okara
DOB (Age): 45
Records: 1 Betsy Obaseki Cup [2021], 1 Nigerian Women's Football League Premiership title [2022], 1 WAFU-B Women's Champions League title [2022]
Active years: 12 years
As a former football player, Okara suited up for numerous clubs in Nigeria and in Europe, with his active playing career spanning from 1995 to 2004.
On his coaching route, he holds several licences from courses undergone in Nigeria and the United States of America. However, his path with Bayelsa Queens began as an assistant coach in 2021, and, the same year, in an acting capacity, he led the club to win the maiden Betsy Obaseki Cup, silencing last year's Caf Women's Champions League campaigners Rivers Angels.
In August 2022, he was handed the substantive head coach role, and under his tutelage, a month later, the club won the WAFU-B Women's Champions League qualifiers in Cote d'Ivoire. Following his regional feat, he has now been assigned the responsibility of leading the Nigerians to continental triumph.
TP MAZEMBE
Name: Marcello Kanyinda Kadiamba
DOB (Age): 71
Records: 1 DR Congo Women's League title [2022], 1 Coupe du Congo [2022], 1 UNIFFAC Women's Champions League title [2022]
Active years: 35 years
Kadiamba was successful as a footballer, turning out for some clubs, including FC Saint-Eloi Lupopo, whom he helped to the DR Congo League Cup triumph in 1968. As a coach, he excelled with several teams before taking up the head coach of the DR Congo senior women's team which he held to date.
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Under his guidance, the Leopard Dames won the 2020 UNIFFAC Women's Cup and reached the third round of the African qualifiers for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Same year, his vast experience earned him the head coach job at TP Mazembe and has gone on to win all the domestic titles before recently guiding the club to UNIFFAC Women's Champions League title. On the string of those achievements, he has been saddled with the task of guiding the Congolese side to success in Morocco.
SIMBA QUEENS
Name: Charles Lukula
DOB (Age): 45
Records: 2 Ugandan Cup, 4 Ugandan Beach Soccer titles, Ugandan Super League promotion [2004, 2013], Ugandan Super League champions [2002], Ugandan Women's League title [2022], CECAFA Champions League runners-up [2022]
Active years: 25
Charles Lukula is a renowned football analyst, whose coaching career started as early as in 1997 with Monitor FC in Uganda. He had brief stints with Rwampala, URA, Kyambogo, Horizon FC, Police FC, Ruhinda, Vipers and Makerere University and Victors FC, where he won Ugandan Cup twice.
'Mbuzi', as affectionately known, also served as head coach of Water FC and MUBS FC, Tooro United, Maroons, Nyamityobora and Busoga United before joining She Corporates in July 2022. At MUBS, he propelled them to four National and University Beach Soccer Championship trophies.
Two months later, he led She Corporates to the runners-up spot, bowing to Simba Queens at the CECAFA Women's Champions League qualifiers. In September 2022, the Ugandan was appointed as Simba's head coach for the Champions League and charged to lead the Tanzanians to a first-time title haul.
