Democratic Republic of Congo have sacked coach Hector Cuper with eleven months left to his contract with the Leopards.
The federation confirmed his sacking on Thursday, ending weeks of speculation over the fate of the Argentine.
The Argentine oversaw the Leopards’ shock 2-1 defeat at the hand of Sudan in their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Wednesday.
“We regret to inform you that we would like to terminate your contract as manager,” a letter to Cuper from DR Congo’s Sports Ministry stated.
“We do not believe that you have helped improve the team as agreed in your contract.”
Belgian Michel Georges Jean Ghislain Preud’homme, former coach of Standard Liege as the favourite to take over.
“A new coach will be appointed very soon, maybe within the next few days, as we’ve already forwarded a list of the pre-selections to the sports minister to make the final choice,” a source at Congolese FA revealed to Ducor Sports.
“What DR Congo needs is a charismatic coach who will not allow himself to be easily influenced to summon this or that player to the national squad simply because he has been in the team for a number of years or because he is a friend of a senior official of the federation.”
Cuper was appointed in May last year to replace Christian Nsengi-Biembe who failed to lead the Leopards to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals.
The 66-year-old gaffer had a condition of leading the Leopards to the next Fifa World Cup in 2022 and his contract was to end in the event of his failure.
The Central Africans bowed 5-2 to Morocco as the North Africans grabbed one of Africa’s tickets to the global football showpiece.
Cuper has had managerial spells at Mallorca, Valencia, Internazionale, Real Betis, Parma, Georgia and Egyptian national team.
