Ben Youssef breaks silence on Nabi's Chiefs exit
by KO Staff Reporter · KickOffFormer Kaizer Chiefs co-coach Khalil Ben Youssef has lifted the lid on the shock departure of head coach Nasreddine Nabi.
The Tunisian mentor left the Amakhosi abruptly in October 2025, just six league games into the season, following intense speculation surrounding his expired CAF coaching credentials.
Despite his sudden exit, Nabi left Naturena with his head held high after guiding the Soweto giants to their first major silverware in ten years by winning the 2024/25 Nedbank Cup.
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Nabi's shock and controversial exit at Chiefs
However, controversy arose when the tactician conspicuously omitted his assistant coaches from his farewell statement, thanking the management, video analysts, and fitness trainers while ignoring his direct technical allies.
In the wake of the head coach's exit, assistants Khalil Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze stepped up to take the reins as co-coaches for the remainder of the 2025/26 campaign.
The duo steadied the ship remarkably well, securing an impressive 54 points in the Betway Premiership—marking the club's second-highest league points tally in the last eleven years.
While they suffered a narrow exit from the CAF Confederation Cup group stage on goal difference, they ultimately led the Glamour Boys to a commendable third-place finish in the league. Two members of Nabi’s original technical backroom staff stayed behind to assist the new co-coaches: physical trainer Majdi Safi and goalkeeper coach Ilyes Mzoughi.
"The situation, it was a misunderstanding between Nabi and the board," Ben Youssef said on SuperSportTV's Giants.
"It was his decision [to leave]. He said 'I want to go, I don't want to stay.' Inside [the club] everyone knows what the story is and what the reality is inside.
"Because at the end of the day, you came here for a job, to suceed. You don't come to make problems and make stories.
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Nabi's technical team leaves Chiefs
The technical team's era at Naturena officially reached its end when Ben Youssef and Kaze left the club on 30 June following the expiration of their two-year contracts. Safi also departed at the conclusion of the campaign.
Following a major technical reset ahead of the current 2026/27 season, Kaizer Chiefs have shown strong competitive form.
The team is currently building on their previous top-three finish, mounting a determined push to challenge for domestic honours and restore their historical dominance under a revamped technical structure.