WATCH | Pitso Mosimane says Pirates and Chiefs fans probably won’t accept him as Bafana coach

12 July 2019 - 12:51 By Mahlatse Mphahlele
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Pitso Mosimane, coach of Mamelodi Sundowns arrives during the 2018 MTN8 quarter finals match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows at Lucas Moripe Stadium, Pretoria on 11August 2018.
Pitso Mosimane, coach of Mamelodi Sundowns arrives during the 2018 MTN8 quarter finals match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows at Lucas Moripe Stadium, Pretoria on 11August 2018.
Image: ©Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix

Pitso Mosimane believes Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates fans won’t accept him in the unlikely event he is asked to double up as Bafana Bafana and Mamelodi Sundowns coach.

Stuart Baxter’s future hangs in the balance following Bafana Bafana’s poor performance at the Africa Cup of Nations Egypt and Mosimane’s name has come up in discussions of potential replacements even though he has no plans of leaving the Brazilians.

“I have a contract here at Mamelodi Sundowns and I don’t know if I can do both jobs at the same time‚” he said when asked if he would consider doubling up if the South African Football Association (Safa) went with this unusual route.

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“I can’t open the door while I am at Sundowns because I have a contract here. I am here at Sundowns because I want to be here at Sundowns.”

Mosimane said the intense rivalry between Sundowns‚ Pirates and Chiefs will it extremely difficult to enjoy full support from all football lovers in the country if he was asked to double up like Florent Ibengé of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“There is a big rivalry between Pirates‚ Sundowns and Chiefs and probably those fans won’t accept me to be the coach because of the rivalry within the country. But‚ in the DRC the coach (Ibengé) is from Vita and the assistant coach is from TP Mazembe. Those are two big clubs but they work together‚ they get along very well and they have players from both clubs and everywhere. There has never been a problem to say why are you having so many players from Vita and so many from Mazembe.”

Mosimane said the last time he tried to double up as national and club coach things didn’t go well for him because he was accused by fans for favouring players from his former club SuperSport United.

“The last time we did that it didn’t go well with me while I was at SuperSport United. You know how our people are‚ when I chose one or two players from SuperSport they were saying I am choosing players from my club but I had players from Chiefs‚ Pirates‚ and other teams.”

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