Fernando Da Cruz: Who Is Kaizer Chiefs’ French Coach Under Fire After the Derby?
So Fernando Da Cruz is trending in South Africa, and if you are a Kaizer Chiefs fan you are probably not in a good mood right now. Chiefs lost the Soweto Derby 2-1 to Orlando Pirates on Saturday and a lot of people are blaming the coach for his team selection. Some ex-players have been very loud about it. So people are asking, who is this man and where did Chiefs find him?
Quick facts
- Name: Fernando Da Cruz
- Nationality: French, with Portuguese roots
- Grew up in: Villeneuve-d’Ascq, near Lille, France
- Job: Head coach of Kaizer Chiefs since July 2026
- Contract: Two years, with an option for a third
- As a player: Amateur footballer, and captain of the France national futsal team
- Biggest coaching title: Moroccan league with AS FAR in 2022-23
A coach who did not play professional football
This is the interesting part. He never played professional football. He played at amateur level in the north of France, but he was good at futsal, and in 1998, at 26, he was called up to the France futsal team. He went on to captain them and played for them until 2006. Not many top coaches come into the game that way.
The Lille years
Most of his coaching background is with Lille. He coached in their youth set up, including the under-19s, around 2009 to 2012. He came back as a scout in 2016.
Then in November 2017 Marcelo Bielsa was suspended and later sacked as Lille coach, and Da Cruz was part of a four man team that took charge of the first team for a short time. They had six games, two wins, a draw and three losses, before Christophe Galtier came in. After that he coached Lille’s B team from 2018 to 2020.
Chiefs say he helped develop players like Idrissa Gueye, Lucas Digne, Eden Hazard and Victor Osimhen during his Lille years. To be fair, with Osimhen it was more that they were at the club at the same time, since Da Cruz was running the B team while Osimhen was in the first team.
Morocco
His biggest achievement came in Morocco. He joined AS FAR in Rabat in 2021 as academy technical director, and in August 2022 he was made head coach. That season, 2022-23, he won the Botola Pro league title with them. He was let go after they went out of the CAF Confederation Cup quarter-finals to USM Alger.
The first time at Chiefs
Some Chiefs fans will remember that this is not his first time at Naturena. In 2024 he was part of Nasreddine Nabi’s staff and he actually ran pre-season training while Nabi was finishing up in Morocco. Then before the season started, the Moroccan federation offered him a technical director job and he left.
Back as head coach
On 17 June 2026 Chiefs announced him as their new head coach on a two year deal with a one year option, starting 1 July. He took over from Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze, who had finished third in the league with 54 points, Chiefs’ best finish in a few years.
He came with his own people, including Egyptian assistant Mahmoud Abbas and French sports scientist Julien Le Heran. He likes possession football and building from the back, and KickOff even compared his style to Roberto De Zerbi’s. That would be a change from how Chiefs have played in recent years.
And the pressure is real. Chiefs have not won the league since 2014-15, and he is about the 11th coaching change at the club in 11 years.
How he wants Chiefs to play
From what we have seen so far, he wants Chiefs to keep the ball, pass out from the back and push the wide players high. At AS FAR he used a 4-4-2 a lot, and KickOff described his set up as a 4-2-3-1 that can change into a 4-2-2-2, with two holding midfielders sitting deep and the forwards drifting into the half spaces.
That kind of football takes time. Players need to learn the patterns and it can look slow at first, and Chiefs fans are not known for their patience after more than ten years without a league title. So every result gets judged very hard, and a derby loss gets judged hardest of all.
He keeps his private life private, and there is not much known about him outside football. Which is fine. The fans only care about the results anyway.
Career timeline
- 1998 to 2006: Plays for and captains the France futsal team
- About 2009 to 2012: Coaches in the Lille youth set up
- 2016: Returns to Lille as a scout
- 2017: Part of Lille’s interim first team staff after Bielsa
- 2018 to 2020: Lille B coach
- 2021: Joins AS FAR as academy technical director
- 2022-23: Wins the Moroccan league as AS FAR head coach
- 2024: Briefly on Nabi’s staff at Chiefs, then joins the Moroccan federation
- June 2026: Named Kaizer Chiefs head coach
The derby and the noise
Back to Saturday. Yanela Mbuthuma put Pirates ahead, Pule Mmodi equalised for Chiefs, and then Tshepang Moremi scored the winner early in the second half. Chiefs’ Inácio Miguel was sent off late on.
After the game Da Cruz talked about the chances his team missed, and he also questioned some refereeing calls, including Pirates’ first goal. Former Chiefs player Junior Khanye blamed his team selection, and some writers said his explanations do not hide his tactical mistakes. Da Cruz also spoke about what players like Khanyisa Mayo and Etiosa Ighodaro need to do to get more minutes, which fans are discussing too.
It was not all bad for Chiefs this week, they had just beaten TS Galaxy 3-0 in the Carling Knockout, and they play Siwelele next in the quarter-finals. But in Soweto, the derby is the result people remember.
