He is majestically perched on the upper echelons of African coaching, rewriting the continent’s coaching annals time and again.
He is none other than the former SuperSport and Mamelodi Sundowns coach, and now coach of Egyptian football giants Al Ahly.
His name is Pitso Mosimane, popularly known in local football quarters as “Jingles”. Despite the many feathers in his cap at Matsatsantsa, Masandawana and now at the Red Devils, Mosimane has remained as level-headed as when he was an amateur player at Rockville Hungry Lions in Soweto, thereafter a semi-pro with Jomo Sono’s Cosmos.
But be careful, do not rub Mosimane up the wrong way, otherwise, his wrath comes to the fore. When speaking his mind he does not mince his words, he shoots from the hip. Ask the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and the international football body, Fifa.
True to Mosimane’s brand, he did not spare CAF and Fifa this week, criticising the soccer organisations for messing up the fixture schedule, leading to a clash of timing the Fifa Club World Cup and the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Mosimane’s bone of contention was that he was unable to field his full complement of players during the Club World Cup as most were in Cameroon competing at Afcon, but the shrewd football tactician managed to beat Mexican side Monterrey 1-0 to reach the semifinals of the Fifa tournament held in Abu Dhabi in the UAE.
The 57-year-old from Kagiso on the West Rand, now known as Mogale City, also questioned the seeding of clubs at the competition that pits continental club champions against one another.
In the semis, Mosimane lost 2-0 to Germany and European champions Bayern Munich.
His Egyptian and African champions, depleted as they were, had to play one match to advance to the last four, where they met Brazilian club Palmeiras. The latter began their campaign at the semifinals stage.
In the end, he won bronze at the Club World Cup for the second successive season.
Mosimane became the first African coach, and Al Ahly the first club on the continent to win back-to-back bronze medals at Fifa’s premier club competition after the Red Devils’ walloping of Saudi Arabia’s Al-Hilal in last weekend’s third-place playoff match.
The outspoken one shook the local football scene when he resigned at Sundowns to join Al Ahly at the end of September 2020 in and five matches into his tenure he won the Egyptian Premier League, followed by the Egypt Cup and back-to-back CAF Champions League trophies.
Pulling no punches, he lambasted the powers that be, going to the extent of pointing at the bias against African football, both at the international and club level. Who are we to argue?
The astute Mosimane has travelled the world and met many former players of African descent and discussed this matter. All of them have concluded that Jingles would never get the opportunity to coach a European club, let alone a European national team. Ask the likes of Tony Yeboah, Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole and John Barnes.
The talk emanating from Cairo is that the straight-talking former Bafana Bafana midfielder and ex-Bafana coach has been dangled a mouth-watering R2.5-million salary as a carrot if he renews his contract coming up in October.
It simply means no-nonsense club boss Mahmoud El Khatib is delighted with our boy’s performance and Mosimane is also content.
As he puts it, he wants to become a coaching legend.
Al Ahly are scheduled to meet Sundowns in the Champions League next month.
The sharp-tongued Mosimane told the SA Football Journalists’ Association that he was unperturbed about returning with his team to Tshwane, where he was booed and sworn at when his Egyptian outfit met Downs in a Champions League game in May last year.
“It’s OK,” he would say.
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