Addis Ababa giants Ethiopia Bunna have denied reports claiming Serbian coach Dragan Popadic, 72, set to leave the club following a cardiac complication disease.
Popadich returned to Addis Ababa in May 2017 to take on the helm at Bunna. He has been guiding the club through their preseason camp in Hawassa before being taken to hospital for a reported cardiac disease. Although the coach visibly made progress in his health, Doctors from the Addis Cardiac Center advised him not to engage in job that has stress issues citing his case is life threatening. Popadic reportedly stated to Ethiopia Bunna that he is fit to continue on his role as he has been scouting his team in the annual preseason tourney, The Addis Ababa City Cup, group stage game against Addis Ababa Ketema. Popadic is in his second term with club after leading the Addis outfit to a runner-up finish in 2015/16 season before departing to take an advisor role in Tanzanian club African Lyon for a brief period. During his maiden season at Bunna, Popadic had been admitted to hospital for a respiratory infection.
Ethiopia Bunna confirmed to Soccer Ethiopia that the coach is still with the club and he has been given a sick on leave. In conflicting reports from close sources reveal that an Ethiopia Bunna board member has been in an intensive negotiation with another Serbian manger to replace Popadic. The two parties failed to agree on personal terms but a deal is imminent, close sources further noted.
The fate of Popadic will be cleared off in the days coming. From its inception, Bunna have never hired a foreign coach before Dragan Poapdic and Nebojsa Vucicevic worked as head coaches in two successive seasons. Bunna’s board President Meto Aleqa Fekade Mamo in May 2017 briefed to the media that the club’s stance not to hire local coaches if the way the coaching lessons given by the Ethiopian Football Federation is not changed and upgraded.
