Saintfit, Tom

Tom Saintfoot started out as a footballer. However, the player’s career did not work out, and at 24, Tom becomes the youngest coach in Belgian football.

From 1997 to 2000 he worked in Belgium, in the lower divisions. Then 2 years he worked in the Guinean club "Satellite".

In 2002, five months working in the Faroese club " B71 Sandoi " in the Second Division of the Faroe Islands, putting the team in second place. However, the club was unable to break into the First Division, and Saintfit left.

In 2003, Saintfit arrives in Qatar to become an assistant to the Portuguese Carlos Alninho at the Al-Garaf club, then called Al-Ittihad Doha. In December 2003, when Alninho left the club, Saintfit became the head coach, and remained with him until June 2004. However, neither with Alninho, nor with Saintfit, the team achieved nothing, finishing in 6th place.

Despite the failure in the championship, in 2004 Saintfit was appointed head coach of the Qatar U-17 team. The team is successfully selected for the Asian Youth Cup, and won the “bronze” at the tournament in Japan, defeating Iraq juniors in the third place match 1: 2.

This success allowed Qatari juniors to break into the Youth World Cup in Peru in 2005. However, at the championship itself, the team expectedly took the last place in the group, losing all matches.

In 2005, leaving Qatar, Saintfit worked for 3 months in the German club Cloppenburg , which played in Oberlig Nord.

In the 2006-2007 season he works as a technical director at the Dutch club Emmen .

In 2008, the same 3 months were led by the Finnish RoPS .

From 2008 to 2010, Saintfit led the Namibian team. This is one of the most successful periods in his career. After 15 official matches, Namibia climbed up 30 lines in the FIFA ranking, which is still its best indicator. This can be partly explained by the fact that Saintfit got the best team in Namibia in history, which only recently played at the Nations Cup 2008 under the leadership of Ari Schans .

In 2010, Saintfit left Namibia for Zimbabwe , but was forced to leave the country without receiving a work permit from the Immigration Service, which indicated that Saintfit violated local laws by starting work without a document. As a result, Saintfit never became a Zimbabwe coach.

In 2011, Tom headed the Jordanian Shabab Al-Ordon club for 4 months before leaving for the national team again.

May 20, 2011 Tom Saintfith led Ethiopia . Many thousands of people came to the capital Addis Ababa to watch Tom's first game against Nigeria . To the surprise of many, Ethiopia showed an excellent game, reducing the match to a draw 2: 2, which meant the departure of the Nigerians from the qualifying tournament.

Saintfith left Ethiopia after five months of work in the national team.

In 2012, he worked as a technical director in the same team of Nigeria , and in July 2012 he headed one of the best clubs in Tanzania - Young Afrikans . However, after only spending some time at the club, Saintfit left Tanzania, Young Afrikans showed average results in the championship, despite winning the KESAF Cup for clubs.

In October 2012, he headed Yemen.

In December 2016, Sinfit replaced Stefan Hart as head coach of the Trinidad and Tobago national team , but he stayed in this position for only 35 days. Under his leadership, the team failed the selection for the CONCACAF Gold Cup . In January, Sainfit was unable to assemble the majority of the strongest players, and the local football federation decided not to pause in the championship due to the preparation of the strongest Trinidad teams in the playoffs. Due to disagreements with the federation, the Belgian resigned from his post in mid-January.

" B71 Sandoi "

• 2nd place Second Faroe League : 2002

Qatar U-17 Team

• 3rd place Asian Cup U-17 : 2004
• Youth Championship qualification in Peru : 2005

Namibian national team

• 1/4 COSAF Cup : 2008-2009
• 15 official matches. Namibia rises in the FIFA ranking up 30 lines.
• Coach of the Year in Namibia: 2008

Young Africans

• KESAF Club Cup : 2012