Kaizer Chiefs’ sudden separation from Nasreddine Nabi has returned to the spotlight after his former assistant, Khalil Ben Youssef, claimed that the Tunisian coach chose to leave rather than being sacked by the Soweto giants.
According to Ben Youssef, Nabi’s departure followed a misunderstanding between the coach and the club’s board.
The revelation adds another twist to an exit that surprised many Amakhosi supporters, especially as Nabi had recently delivered the 2025 Nedbank Cup, ending Chiefs’ 10-year wait for a major trophy.
‘It was his decision’: What Nabi’s former assistant said
Nabi left Chiefs in September 2025, just six matches into the 2025/26 season.
Ben Youssef, who worked alongside the Tunisian at Naturena, has now offered his version of the events that led to the split.
Speaking on SuperSport TV’s Giants, as reported by KickOff, Ben Youssef described the situation as a misunderstanding between Nabi and the club’s leadership.
“The situation… it was a misunderstanding between Nabi and the board,” he said.
He then insisted that Nabi had made the decision to walk away.
“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.”
Ben Youssef also stressed that coaches join clubs to do their jobs and achieve success, rather than create unnecessary problems.
His comments offer a different account from the widespread perception that Chiefs had dismissed Nabi. However, they do not, on their own, establish the full circumstances surrounding the departure.
Why was Nasreddine Nabi’s Chiefs exit so surprising?
Nabi’s departure was particularly unexpected given what he had achieved during his time with Amakhosi.
The former Chiefs coach guided the club to the 2025 Nedbank Cup title, bringing an end to a decade-long wait for silverware and raising hopes of a revival at Naturena.
Yet his tenure ended only months later, forcing the club to reorganise its technical team.
Ben Youssef and Cedric Kaze subsequently took charge as co-coaches, stepping into the roles following Nabi’s exit.
The timing left supporters questioning what had gone wrong behind the scenes and why a coach who had delivered a major trophy had departed so soon afterwards.
Were CAF coaching credentials part of the problem?
When Nabi left, reports suggested that issues involving his CAF-mandated interclub coaching credentials may have contributed to the separation.
Such credentials are relevant to eligibility for certain continental competitions, including the CAF Confederation Cup.
However, Ben Youssef’s latest account points instead to a misunderstanding between Nabi and the Chiefs board as the reason for the split.
The precise nature of that disagreement remains unclear based on the comments provided. It is therefore difficult to establish whether the reported coaching-credential issue was central to the departure or a separate concern.
What really happened between Nabi and Kaizer Chiefs?
Ben Youssef’s remarks have reignited debate over whether Nabi was dismissed or decided that his time at Naturena had come to an end.
His former assistant maintains that Nabi wanted to leave, but the full details of the disagreement have not been established in the account presented.
Until further clarification emerges from the parties involved, questions surrounding the separation are likely to remain.
For Chiefs supporters, the central question is why a trophy-winning coach left so soon after delivering one of the club’s most important recent achievements.
Amakhosi fans, do you believe Nasreddine Nabi chose to leave Kaizer Chiefs, or do you think there is more to the story?
