Gordon Igesund

Gordon Igesund (born 26 July 1956) is a former South African football player and coach who was until June 2014 the manager of the South African national football team.

Playing career

Igesund played for Durban City, Durban United, Highlands Park, Witbank Aces (player-coach), African Wanderers (player-coach), Leeds United (player-coach), AmaZulu (player-coach), Durban Bush Bucks (player-coach), D'Alberton Callies (player-coach) and also in Austria for GAK and Admira Wacker.

Early life

Igesund was born in Durban to George Norman Igesund (born 1932) who Igesund was named after. His family lived in Port Shepstone where former Arsenal player Danny Le Roux lived.

Coaching career

Igesund is a record-breaking coach in South Africa, having become the only man to coach four different top-flight teams to the Premier Soccer League championship. He first made his name when he led unfashionable coastal team Manning Rangers to the inaugural PSL title in the 1996/97 season. He followed this up in the 2000/01 season with another title, this time at the helm of Soweto giants Orlando Pirates. He proved his critics wrong the very next season, taking another unfashionable team, Cape Town’s Santos, to a surprise PSL title in 2001/02. But the nomadic Igesund was soon changing his allegiance again, this time moving to Ajax Cape Town, the satellite club of Dutch giants AFC Ajax. Igesund’s time with Ajax proved rather unsuccessful and he left the team at the end of the 2005/06 season. He then replaced Sundowns’ co-coaches Miguel Gamondi and Neil Tovey. Igesund added to his record number of PSL titles leading Sundowns to a comfortable PSL win in 2007.