Pitso Mosimane has reacted to being endorsed by Nigeria football legend Jay-Jay Okocha about the rumours and speculations that he is linked with the Super Eagles national team job.
The former Mamelodi Sundowns and Al Ahly mentor is a free agent after parting ways with Al Wahda recently.
This week, Okocha said he would love to see a well-travelled, big coach like Mosimane coaching the Super Eagles one day.
Speaking exclusively to Sunday World during the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools year-end tournament prize giving at the Benoni Northerns Sports Club yesterday, he said: “To be endorsed by a guy like Jay-Jay Okocha in coaching the Nigeria national, a legend that is well respected in Nigeria, is humbling and gives me goosebumps – especially when you know the history and how big of a nation Nigeria is in football.
“They have a lot of talented players; the likes of Samuel Chukwueze, the Napoli striker Victor Osimhen. But talent alone is not enough because if it was only about talent, they would have beaten Lesotho 7-0, but they drew with them. And pound for pound they would have also beaten Zimbabwe.
“So, the job of the coach is to bring confidence, stability, leadership, winning mentality and teamwork within the group.”
Mosimane said that if he was approached, he would consider coaching the Super Eagles.
“The Nigeria job is one I would consider, but it would also depend on whether they want the team to be led by an African? Because the only African coach they had was Stephen Keshi.
“That is also a challenge because there has been a lot of white people on the job; whether we believe in our African coaches like Morocco, Senegal, Algeria and Egypt remains to be seen.
“I envy all those African coaches who were entrusted with the job and maybe take the level higher. But I don’t want to talk too much about the Nigerian job links because there is still a coach there and it’s important that I respect that.”
