AS Simba

FC Simba Kolwezi was established in 2002 and is currently playing in Linafoot, the local top-tier league, since they won the 2018–19 season of the Linafoot Ligue 2 and won promotion to the top division of Congolese football for the first time in their history. Although the 2019-20 edition of Linafoot was suspended in March 2020 and later halted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, AS Simba managed to stay for another year in the top-tier league as they finished twelfth out of sixteen teams, with their top-scorer Rodrigue Kitwa netting six goals. For the following season, the local government decided to appoint Julio César Gómez as the club's new head coach. Mostly known for being the co-founder of the Ciudad Deportiva Getafe CF (training ground and academy base of the eponymous football team) and having previously worked as a talent scout for Real Madrid, the Spaniard was first introduced to Congolese football when he accepted to collaborate with a local scout in a project that was directly funded by the government, selecting young players from all over the country and leading the resulting representative to an international tournament in Dubai, which they eventually won. As a consequence, Gómez received (and refused) offers from several teams in Congo DR before accepting to take over the managerial role at AS Simba. Introducing a more technical approach to the training methods and aspiring to improve the position of the club within Congolese football, Gómez led a successful…