Spiers takes over from Nshimiyimana, targets Peace Cup title

Andreas Spiers

German-born tactician Andreas Spiers has been appointed the head coach of APR FC, taking over from Eric Nshimiyimana who has been relegated to an assistant coach as the military side seek to overturn the poor run of results this season.

With six games remaining to the end of the 2013/13 Primus National Football League, APR club management appointed Spiers the head coach over the weekend.

The appointment means that Spiers is the overall coach and will be assisted by Nshimiyimana and former defender Didier Bizimana as well as Ibrahim Mugisha who has been acting as the goal keeper’s coach.

Spiers said, “I am happy with the new role given. My mission is to improve the team’s performance. We need to play good football in order to get good results. So it is about tactics that we will see APR get back to playing its good football in order to win,”

“Winning the Primus league is difficult as we need to win all the remaining matches but I am assured that we can win the Peace Cup title.”

“I have been managing the academy but with APR it will not be difficult because it’s the same pool of young players that I have been dealing with and I believe the mission is attainable,” added Spiers.

Spiers came to Rwanda in 2008 and the following year, he was managing the women national team. A year later, he was appointed the head coach of APR football academy which later changed its name to Intare club and featured in the second division league.

The club was later abandoned as APR management ended their foreign policy to opt for young Rwandan players and most of the players who featured in Ntare club were promoted to APR senior team. Such faces include; Nova Bayama, Barnabe Mubumbyi, Yannick Mukunzi and Maxime Sekamana.

The change in technical staff comes at a time when APR suffered one of their heaviest defeats to arch rivals Rayon Sport in the Primus League. They were hammered 4-0 in a scintillating match early this month following their early exit from the Africa Champions League by Burundian side Vital’o.

The defeat to Rayon was not only their first loss with such a huge margin in local football but also the first time they had lost two league matches in a row in recent history, having been beaten 1-0 by Mukura the previous week.

APR are in third position on the Primus league log with 35 points, six points behind leaders Rayon Sport and one points behind second placed Police FC.

Spiers has a tough task of ensuring that APR wins the remaining matches against Amagaju, SC Kiyovu, AS Kigali, Isonga, La Jeunesse, and Etincelles and hope Rayon Sport falters in order to win their 14th league title in 18 years.