Mangaung Unite FC have gone public with a full technical-team recruitment drive for the 2026/27 season, inviting applications for head coach, assistant coach and goalkeeper coach roles ahead of a 19 July deadline. The Bloemfontein club — reigning ABC Motsepe League Free State champions who fell short in June’s national playoffs — is looking to rebuild its dugout after a bruising end to what was otherwise a landmark campaign. CVs are to be submitted to [email protected] with the specific position named in the subject line.
The vacancies and the bar
For the head coach role, Mangaung Unite have set a CAF B Licence as the minimum and demanded five years of coaching experience in the ABC Motsepe League or a higher tier. The assistant and goalkeeper coach roles require a CAF C Licence and the same five-year experience floor at ABC Motsepe League level or above. That is a notably specific and disciplined shortlist filter — it screens out ambitious younger coaches without regional-tier reps and points toward a candidate pool with actual Motsepe-tier miles.
The context behind the search
Lengau — the club’s nickname — won the Free State ABC Motsepe League last season under a technical structure that has now been cleared out. The subsequent national playoffs, in early June, ended with the club failing to secure promotion, prompting CEO Katlego Mokgele’s much-quoted admission that “we couldn’t get promoted”. Six of the title-winning squad’s players have since been sold to PSL clubs, including a trio (Kopamotse, Matube, Mosotho) who joined Polokwane City. That is a lot of continuity out the door — both playing and coaching — heading into a season that will require rebuilding the identity from scratch.
What Mangaung Unite are signalling
By setting a hard 19 July deadline and asking candidates to name the position in the email subject line, Mangaung Unite are telegraphing a proper administrative process rather than an old-network hire. That is a change of tempo for a Free State ABC Motsepe outfit and probably a deliberate one — the club has upgraded its off-field operation in step with its on-field ambitions over the last two years. Whoever emerges as head coach will inherit a squad that has been trimmed at the top, but a club that clearly wants the next hire to arrive through the front door.
