Football |27 February 2024

Ralph Jean-Louis appointed head coach for two years

The Seychelles Football Federation has appointed Ralph Jean-Louis as the men’s senior national team head coach for the next two years.

Mr Jean-Louis was the only Seychellois Confederation of African Football (Caf) valid License A holder who applied when the expression of interest for the post was published in the media and online last month.

The Seychelles Football Federation (SFF) received three applications, two of them from foreign coaches.

The expression of interest gave priority to Seychellois coaches in possession of a valid Caf License A to apply for the position, but Mr Jean-Louis was the only one who did so.

It must be noted that Mr Jean-Louis was the head coach of the national team’s caretaker management committee who took over after the Indian Ocean Islands Games last year to prepare the team for their first two Caf 2026 World Cup qualifiers against current African champions Côte d’Ivoire and Kenya.

He put together a team of mostly young players and some seniors who were willing to participate and passed the rigorous entry tests. Seychelles lost both of those games.

With this appointment coach Jean-Louis will have the opportunity to continue with the project started last year, enlisting new players as necessary.

The main target this year is playing a further two Caf 2026 World Cup qualifying matches between June 3-11, as well as participating in the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations Cosafa (Cup).

Seychelles are slated to play away to The Gambia and host Burundi in the two Caf 2026 World Cup qualifying matches.

The Cosafa Cup will be held from June 12 to 23 and Seychelles are expected to play at least three matches in this competition.

The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (Fifa) Forward 3.0 regulations require that the men’s senior national team of member associations play at least four international matches each year to qualify under this programme.

The same applies for the senior women’s national team as well as male and female youth teams from a specific age category.

Contributed by the Seychelles Football Federation (SFF)