Tom Saintfiet

Tom Saintfiet (born 29 March 1973) is a Belgian football coach and former player.

He is the current head coach of the Philippines national team.

In a full Addis Ababa Stadium, fans watched Ethiopia take the lead for most of the game, only for Nigeria captain Joseph Yobo to score in the 86th minute to rescue a point.

In 2002, he coached Faroese team B71 and finished second in the Faroe Islands First Division.

He then became coach at Al-Ittihad Sports Club in Qatar (now called Al-Gharafa Sports Club).

In 2004, he coached the Qatar national under-17 football team to third place in the AFC U-17 Championship, qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup in the process.

Saintfiet started off successfully with Namibia by beating Comoros and Malawi and playing a draw against Lesotho in the COSAFA Senior Challenge Cup in South Africa in July 2008.

Namibia were eliminated in the quarter-final at the hands of eventual champion and host South Africa.

Three days after a 1–1 away draw against Lebanon in April 2009, Namibia once again got an impressive result with a 0–0 draw away to Angola.

However, perhaps his most impressive result came in Durban, when Namibia drew 1–1 with South Africa after leading for much of the game.

Namibia had Only Won 1 game out of 12 in the months before Saintfiet's arrival.

Under his leadership, Namibia rose 34 places in the FIFA World Rankings to the highest position they had achieved in the past 10 years.

After these performances, the Namibian press nicknamed Saintfiet "The Saint" and one newspaper even called him "The Messiah".

Prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, Saintfiet was one of the candidates to lead the Nigerian national team for the World Cup campaign in South Africa.

Saintfiet's achievements with Namibia include defeating Zimbabwe 4–2 in a 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifier and DR Congo 4–0 in a friendly.

After being heavily linked with the job, Sainfiet emerged successful through a shortlist of 15 candidates and signed a four-year contract with the Zimbabwe Football Association on 1 October 2010.

In November, Zimbabwean immigration authorities refused to issue a work permit to the "Warriors" coach and Saintfiet was requested to leave.

The Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) then appealed the decision taken by the department of immigration to turn down Saintfiet's work permit application for national team coach.

After being refused a work permit by the immigration department for a second time, he was forced to leave his role as head coach of Zimbabwe in October 2010.

Former Manchester City player Benjani Mwaruwari announced his international retirement immediately after Saintfiet was forced out of the country.

In late December 2010, Saintfiet signed a four-month contract with 2007 AFC Cup winners Shabab Al Ordon.

Saintfiet displayed again a well-organized defense, with his team only conceding one goal in the first five matches with him in charge.

He never lost a match with the club and guided them to second position in the national championship.

Saintfiet was named head coach of Ethiopia in late May 2011.

After beating Madagascar 4–2 Saintfiet voluntarily resigned his position as head coach on 28 October 2011 citing disagreements with the FA.

He would be named as the team's technical director in 2012 and became a candidate for the head coach position again in 2016.

On 10 October, Zimbabwe played Cape Verde in Harare in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualification match, with the game resulting in a 1–1 draw.

Saintfiet had trained the squad prior to the match although he was made to leave the camp due to the issues regarding work permits.

From his base in Namibia, Saintfiet put in place the tactics and selected the national team squad that beat Mozambique 3–1 in the following match.

Within 10 days of taking over, he guided the Ethiopia national football team, composed of local players, to a 2–2 draw against Nigeria in the 2012 AFCON qualifiers.

In March 2012, Saintfiet was appointed as the technical director of Nigeria by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

However, the Nigerian ministry of sports hinted three months later that there were many competent Nigerians and preferred a Nigerian instead of a foreign technical director.

Therefore, he could not obtain a work visa to enter Nigeria.

In July 2012, Saintfiet took charge of Tanzania club Young Africans SC.

He managed the Gambian national team from 2018 to 2024, earning a place in the top five list of best coaches of the year in the African continent in 2022 and 2023, voted by Confédération Africaine de Football.

In 2022, he was second runner-up for the Royal Belgian Football Association's "Coach of the Year" award.

By January 2024, Saintfiet has already achieved 100 FIFA official matches as coach of national teams.

Saintfiet has coached in several countries, including Belgium, Qatar, Germany, Faroe Islands, Finland, Jordan and the Netherlands.

He has also worked in Africa, having been the head coach of the national teams of Namibia, Zimbabwe, Ethiopia, Malawi and Togo, among others.

Saintfiet was manager of Finnish Premier League club RoPS Rovaniemi.