South Africa coach Stuart Baxter has resigned saying it is the right time to move on with a new cycle of Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup qualifiers ahead.
His second spell in charge of Bafana Bafana comes to an end just weeks after South Africa reached the quarter-finals of the recent Nations Cup.
The campaign in Egypt included a win over the hosts in the last 16.
“I feel it’s time for someone else to take over and I have decided to resign from my position. It is my personal decision,” he explained.
“Going to Afcon, this squad had not lost in a year, something that was not easy considering we were introducing new players.
“I’ve chosen not to point fingers and I will refrain from that. Choosing not to answer some misleading media coverage is something that’s also hard to do.”
Bafana Bafana scraped into the last 16 despite losing two of their three group matches.
South Africa upset Egypt 1-0 only to lose after a goalkeeping blunder in the last minute to Nigeria in the quarter-final.
Baxter won 14 of 30 matches in his second stint, drawing six and losing 10.
Baxter is now the ninth coach to leave his job following the Africa Cup of Nations finals last month.
He follows Clarence Seedorf (Cameroon), Javier Aguirre (Egypt), Paul Put (Guinea), Herve Renard (Morocco), Ricardo Mannetti (Namibia), Emanuel Amunike (Tanzania), Sebastien Desabre (Uganda) and Sunday Chidzambwa of Zimbabwe in either quitting, coming to the end of their contracts or being fired.
