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FORMER Zimbabwe international Kalisto Pasuwa’s profile continues to grow in the region after he was yesterday named caretaker coach of the Malawi national football team.

Pasuwa, who has established him as a serial winner in Malawi after lifting five straight topflight titles with Nyasa Big Bullets, was hired by the Football Association of Malawi to fill the vacancy created by the sacking of  the country’s legend, Patrick Mabedi, last week.

FAM yesterday made the announcement following a virtual meeting of the FAM Executive Committee held earlier in the day. The FAM Executive Committee resolved that Pasuwa will work with Peter Mponda as first assistant coach and Prichard Mwansa as second assistant.

The new technical panel also includes former Malawi internationals Kinnah Phiri and Young Chimodzi as Technical Advisors.

The Committee resolved that engagements with Malawi Sports Council and Ministry of Sports should commence immediately on the recruitment of the substantive head coach, with Pasuwa’s name likely to be considered should he impress in the upcoming assignments.

Pasuwa and his new technical team will immediately get down to business as they need to prepare a team that will feature in the upcoming 2025 AFCON qualifying matches against Burundi and Burkina Faso.

Malawi will play Burundi away on November 14 before returning home four days later to host Burkina Faso in the remaining two matches of their 2025 AFCON campaign.

These matches however, have been reduced to dead rubbers following a dismal run under Mabedi, whose win-less record was punctuated by four straight losses in Group L which has Burundi, Burkina Faso and Senegal.

Under Mabedi, the Flames lost 3-2 at home to Burundi, 3-1 away to Burkina Faso, and suffered back-to-back defeats to Senegal recently.

They fell 0-4 in the first leg and then suffered a 1-0 defeat to the Lions of Teranga in the reverse fixture at Bingu National Stadium, which confirmed their elimination from the AFCON qualification matrix.

However, Pasuwa is not new to national teams  as he has previously coached Zimbabwe and qualified the Warriors to the 2017 AFCON finals with a game to spare.

His record in Malawi was also difficult to ignore after he set a new record by becoming the first coach ever to win five straight Super League titles in the country.

Before that he had won four consecutive league titles with Zimbabwean giants Dynamos, which means he won nine titles in the nine seasons that he has coached football.

Two years ago, Pasuwa was also linked with the Malawi national team job and most recently reports indicated South African giants Kaizer Chiefs were tracking him before settling for Tunisian Nasreddine Nabi.