POLOKWANE City are involved in a neck-to-neck race with Black Leopards to secure the services of Dan “Dance” Malesela.
The coach has been without a job after being sacked by Chippa United a fortnight ago following a 3-1 league defeat to Baroka FC.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns defender has since been replaced by Tebogo Moloi, who’s been employed on a caretaker basis.
The 52-year-old has had a tough time at the Port Elizabeth-based side following being sent on special leave in April due to poor results.
According to an insider, City boss Johnny Mogaladi and his counterpart at National First Division side Leopards, David Thidiela, have dangled a big juicy carrot in front of Malesela.
The coach is earmarked to replace Bernard Molekwa, who started the Absa Premiership season on a bad note after winning and drawing one match and losing three games this season.
Molekwa was appointed head coach of Rise and Shine in July after serving on a caretaker basis toward the end of last season.
Said the source: “Mogaladi approached Malesela hoping he’d agree to take over as Molekwa was struggling.
“But the main stumbling block is that Malesela has also received another great offer from Leopards.
This means Mogaladi will need to dig deep into his pocket to convince him to come on board.”
But Leopards boss Thidiela denied being after Malesela’s services.
He said: “I’m happy with Luscuito Jean and I’m not looking for another coach.”
Meanwhile, the source revealed Thidiela had wanted Malesela to replace Jean Luscuito, with whom the owner’d had a fallout after the coach requested to be released from his Leopards contract to join Free State Stars.
But the move fell through after Thidiela demanded R2 million to release him from his contract, forcing Luscuito to return to the club.
But Luscuito seems to have lost his magic touch, as Lidoda Duvha had won only one game in four outings prior to yesterday’s fixtures.
Malesela says he hasn’t been approached by any club to take over the hot seat. “No-one has spoken to me.”
