Anele Ngcongca on Pitso Mosimane: 'I hear people talking about arrogance – but I mean, which coach is not arrogant?'

Anele Ngcongca says his Mamelodi Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane compares with the best manager the right-back worked with in a nine-year career in Europe, Belgian boss Franky Vercauteren.

Ngcongca played eight successful seasons for Genk from 2008 to 2015, and was coached there by Belgian 1970s and 1980s playing legend Vercauteren from 2009 to 2011.

The ex-Bafana Bafana right-back, who has linked up again with his former South Africa international coach Mosimane at Sundowns, compared the Brazilians’ boss with Vercauteren, who has won three league titles and two Belgian Super Cups at Genk and current club Anderlecht.

“To be honest I will compare him with one of my best coaches I’ve worked under in Belgium,” Ngcongca said of Sundowns’ four-time league winner and 2016 Caf Champions League winner Mosimane.

“If you know the yesteryear of Belgian football he used to play against Pele and Maradona [for Belgium] – Franky Vercauteren. Working with coach Pitso I get that same feeling as working with Vercauteren.

“As much as he [Mosimane] is hard working he’s always got a door open for any player to come and speak to him. It’s not about only football, it’s about life in general.

“I had the privilege to work with coach Pitso for Bafana Bafana too. He’s the coach who, if he sees you are struggling, is the first one to call you over and say the things you want to hear as a player.

“Some people see it differently because they don’t work closely with him. I hear people talking about arrogance – but I mean, which coach is not arrogant?

“Would Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola or Juergen Klopp be where they are today if they weren’t arrogant? So I think people miss something there about coach Pitso."

“He’s one of the coaches who I’d say has played a part in my career. I remember he and [then-Bafana] coach Carlos Alberto Parreira [who Mosimane assisted] came to watch my first game in Belgium, and games where I was playing centreback against Romelu Lukaku [then playing for Anderlecht].

“Those are the things the coach always mentions – when I was playing Champions League against Fernando Torres.

“Those are the things I appreciate about having coach Pitso. If I get into coaching, those are the things I will copy.

“He eats football, he lives football. To have someone like that makes a player’s job very easy.”

After a season for Troyes in France’s Ligue 1 Ngconcga returned to South Africa to sign for Sundowns in August 2016.