Another home grown World Cup-winning coach looms

All 18 World Cup-winning coaches to date were home grown and the trend looks likely to continue at the 2010 tournament in South Africa.

Among the eight survivors going into weekend matches, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Netherlands, Spain and Uruguay are using natives while Ghana have Serb Milovan Rajevac and Paraguay Argentine Gerardo Martino.

Ghana, only the third African country after Cameroon and Senegal to get this far, and fellow first-time quarter-finalists Paraguay appear on paper to be the weakest of the contenders.

Argentina and Brazil, the choice of many for a dream July 11 final at Soccer City in Johannesburg, boast the most famous coaches in Diego Maradona and Dunga, both World Cup winners as players.

Maradona collected his gold medal in 1986 after a 3-2 Mexico City final victory over Germany and the countries meet again at Cape Town Stadium Saturday.

He failed to score in the decider, but Maradona had a huge impact by scoring both goals, including the ‘Hand of God’ one, in a quarter-final triumph over England and also the two goals that saw off semi-final rivals Belgium.

Dunga – full name Carlos Caetano Bledorn Verri – was the midfield hard man who led Brazil to the least spectacular of its record five titles 16 years ago in the United States.

A goalless final against Italy in the baking midday heat of Los Angeles led to a penalty shootout and a wild miss by Roberto Baggio, the ‘Divine Ponytail’, helped the South Americans emerge victorious.

Maradona and Dunga are hoping to emulate Brazilian Mario Zagallo and German Franz Beckenbauer and become a World Cup gold medalist as a footballer and a coach.

Winger Zagallo triumphed as a footballer in 1958 and 1962 and as coach of the great Pele-inspired 1970 Brazilian team while Beckenbauer was a dominant defender in the 1974 final and a successful coach 16 years later.

Beckenbauer could claim a World Cup ‘hat-trick’ as he led the successful bid to host the 2006 tournament with Germany pipping South Africa 12-11 after now deceased Oceania representative Charles Dempsey controversially abstaining.

Argentina supplied three coaches at the 2010 finals in Maradona, Martino and Marcelo Bielsa, who helped Chile win at the tournament for the first time in 48 years en route to a last-16 place.

This figure was matched by Germany with the national team under the control of Joachim Loew, 72-year-old Otto Rehhagel guiding Greece and Ottmar Hitzfeld in charge of Switzerland.