Quinton Fortune

Bafana Bafana star Quinton Fortune has been announced as assistant coach at Mexican Liga MX side Deportivo Guadalajara. Photo: Sydney Mahlangu /BackpagePix

Quinton Fortune secures coaching role at English Championship outfit

Bafana legend Quinton Fortune has left Man United Under-23s to take up a role at Championship side, Reading as first-team coach.

Quinton Fortune

Bafana Bafana star Quinton Fortune has been announced as assistant coach at Mexican Liga MX side Deportivo Guadalajara. Photo: Sydney Mahlangu /BackpagePix

English Championship outfit Reading have announced former South Africa international Quinton Fortune as first-team coach.

The ex-Man United player has been serving as Under-23s coach at his old side, alongside fellow ex-Red Devil Neil Wood.

Quinton Fortune joins Reading 

He leaves his role at his former side to take up a senior coaching role at The Royals, where former Portugal international Nuno Gomes will serve as his assistant.

Reading made the announcement on their website on Tuesday evening.

Fortune will join former Atletico Madrid teammate Veljko Paunović, who was recently appointed by the club as manager.

Farewell to Man United

Man United have bid the Cape Town-born star, who turned out 126 times in the famous red as a player.

“Everyone at the Academy wishes Quinton the best of luck in his new role,” Man United head of academy football, Nick Cox said. “All of our coaches, as well as the players, receive a huge amount of development and this is another example of the type of progress that an individual can make within the Academy system. The Under-23s’ promotion was a great achievement for Neil Wood and his staff so we’d like to thank Quinton for his role in that.”

Fortune joined Man United from Atletico Madrid in 1999 and spent the entirety of his career at Old Trafford playing under legendary manager, Sir Alex Ferguson.

The 43-year-old was part of three Premier League-winning United squads, but has only one winners-medal to his name due to not having played the required matches needed to earn the accolade in each of the two other campaigns.

Internationally, Fortune represented South Africa 46 times, appearing in two Fifa World Cups and was one of the scorers during the group match against Paraguay in Korea/Japan 2002.