Former Maritzburg United head coach Ernst Middendorp has been nominated for the prestigious German Football Ambassador award.

Previous winners of the award include former South African Football Association technical director Horst Kriete‚ Nigeria coach Gernot Rohr and USA coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

However, Middendorp’s fellow nominees for the prestigious award include former Lebanon coach Theo Bucker and former Mozambique coach Gert Engels.

A press release stated: “The ‘Deutscher Fußball Botschafter’ – ‘German Football Ambassador’ is a sports award‚ which honours German football players and coaches‚ who are operating abroad‚ for their social and cultural acting in favour of Germany.

“The winner of the award receives prize money‚ which he or she will use to support a project in the country he was or he still is working in.

“This year‚ Ernst Middendorp is one of the three nominees in the category ‘Coaches’ and he can entertain hopes to win the award in 2018.

“Between 2005 and 2016 Middendorp was active in South Africa and trained various teams‚ like Kaizer Chiefs‚ Maritzburg United‚ Bloemfontein Celtic‚ Chippa United and Free State Stars.”

Middendorp is currently plying his trade as the technical director of Bangkok United in Thailand.