The newly appointed Amavubi head coach Josip Kuze has resigned, after four months of penning a two year deal which would expire in 2010.

Kuze who was on a holiday in his native Croatia returned back early this week to tender in his  resignation to both the national football federation, Ferwafa and the Ministry of Youth, Culture and Sport(MIJESPOC) before departing for Japan on Tuesday night.

The former Dynamo Zagreb coach Kuze signed a two-year contract deal in October last year to guide the Amavubi Stars to the 2010 African Nations Cup finals.

Kuze’s departure comes as a shock to many after helping Rwanda finish second at last year’s GTV Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Efforts to get a comment from Ferwafa and MIJESPOC officials were futile by press time as they referred this

reporters to the press conference which was due yesterday evening.

However, Amavubi’s assistant coach Jean Marie Ntagwabira said that Kuze’s untimely departure was a great loss to the nation.

‘This is a very great loss to Amavubi team at the time when the qualifiers for 2010 CAN/Fifa finals are around the corner,’ Ntagwabira said.
Ntagwabira further urged Ferwafa to search for a replacement as soon as possible so as to enlighten the country’s chances of qualifying for the 2010 events. 

Kuze who seconded fellow Croat and U-20 coach Tomislav Obradovic for the Amavubi top job is reportedly in Japan.

Kuze was the second coach from former Yugoslavia federation to take charge of the Rwandan national team.

His predecessor, Serb Ratomir Dujkovic left a huge impact in Rwanda after leading the team to its maiden appearance at the African Nations Cup in 2004 and he later led Ghana to the second round of World Cup 2006 in Germany where they lost to Brazil.

Kuze was a player and later coach of Dynamo Zagreb for which he played from 1971-1981 in 384 games scoring 14 goals.

He is best recognized as the foundation stone and the leader of the "new Dynamo”, perfectly assembled and elastic enough to adapt to any game demands. His strongpoint is something that is usually missing in Croatia - he makes his players play better than they can, they improve their abilities under his leadership, he finds each player his perfect role, and finally assembles the team in a formation.

Before Kuze’s appointment, Rwanda had not had a national football’s team coach since the unsurprising sacking of German coach Michael Nees after the team’s failure to qualify for the 2008 Nations Cup finals in Ghana.

The Amavubi Stars finished third in their qualifying group, nine points behind Cameroon in the 2008 CAN Ghana qualifiers last year.

The federation who decided not to renew Nees’ contract on the grounds that he had failed to perform his best in the year that he had been in charge of the national team moved in on Kuze a move that surprised many in the western capitals.  

Nees had signed a one-year contract in 2006, and he guided Rwanda to third place at the 2006 Cecafa Challenge Cup in Ethiopia.

Rwanda qualified for the 2004 Africa Nations Cup finals in Tunisia, but missed out on the 2006 and 2008 editions respectively.

FACTS ON KUZE
Playing career
He was a professional football player with Dynamo Zagreb, gathering 11 Yugoslavian U-21 caps. He played a minor role among the great players who still have their huge amount of respect today, mostly due to the fact that in 1967. UEFA cup was won, and in 1982. Yugoslavian championship. During his playing years with Dynamo as a defender from 1971 to 1981 he played in 384 games scoring 14 goals. Kuze scored only 1 goal in 1975/1976 season. He played with football greats Zlatko Kranjcar, Snjesko Cerin, Srecko Bogdan, Velimir Zajec, Ivica Senzen, Marko Mlinaric, Ismet Hadzic, Boro Cvetkovic, Stjepan Deveric, Marijan Vlak, and Petar Brucic.

Managerial career
After his playing career he started as coach of Sydney Croatia (1982-84) then he coached clubs such as BSK Slavonski Brod (1985-86), Dynamo Zagreb youth (1986-88), Borac Banja Luka (1988-89) before he became Dinamo Zagreb’s coach in (1989-91). In 1991., he started coaching in Germany with FC Rot-Weib Erfurt (1991-92) and later accepted the job from league-competition FSV Mainz 05, and stayed there until 1994. From 1995-98, he coached Japanese side Gamba Osaka where he is credited for have discovered former Cameroonian international Patrick Mboma   . Kuze came back to Croatia to coach NK Zagreb (1998-99) and had a short stint with FC Chemnitz in 2000 and proceded to coach Gamba Osaka again from 2000-2002. Inter Zapresic was a club he coached from 2003-04 and from 2005., he took over coaching of Dynamo Zagreb again, with which he won the Croatian championship of  2005/2006 season.