What could go wrong?
It’s a question constantly posed in a three-year running advert by a South African insurance company, Santam, that is in a big scramble these days trying to answer this very question.
But I’m not about to indulge you more on this well reported saga of this insurer. I will leave that to my esteemed business news reporting colleagues.
The reason I touched on the question of “what could go wrong?”, came rushing through my blood this past Friday after watching something interesting but very unrelated to the insurer’s advert.
It was after I’d seen Pitso Mosimane leading Al Ahly to their ninth Caf Champions League title, after beating bitter Cairo rivals Zamalek 2-1 at the Cairo International Stadium on Friday night, that this question arose.
Miles away watching this piece of history unfold before my eyes, I felt very proud to be a South African football fan. It’s a remarkable achievement by one of the most passionate and hard-working South African football coaches.
But there are no surprises really, given what Mosimane demonstrated in the eight years he spent at Mamelodi Sundowns, the club he first won the Champions League with in 2016, before joining the Africa’s most dominant club at the beginning of October.
Built through his numerous successes over a coaching career now spanning 19 years, I’ve developed some pertinent questions.
There are no surprises really, given what Mosimane had demonstrated in the eight years he spent at Mamelodi Sundowns, the club he first won the Champions League with in 2016.
What could really limit Mosimane’s path to further glory beyond Africa after achieving what he did last week? I asked myself.
Well, this is football and nothing is guaranteed. But what is guaranteed is that no one can take away what Mosimane has already achieved.
We know how fickle club owners of big Egyptian clubs such as Ahly can be. At a drop of a hat they’ll fire their managers, no matter how great they still look in anyone’s eyes. The expectations will be huge from now on, but there’s no doubt he’s got big and broad shoulders to handle whatever is thrown at him after delivering his latest crown.
Mosimane will forever be the toast of Ahly fans after winning them a trophy they’ve longed for for a frustrating seven years, their last win coming against Orlando Pirates in 2013. Surely now the Ahly supporters will say anything linked to SA is bound to give them some blessing and success in Africa’s most prestigious of interclub competitions.
Maybe a season or two with Ahly will further sharpen Mosimane, and maybe he’ll end up spending more than two years in North Africa before embarking on his next football journey at one of the top clubs in Europe.
Who knows, with Europe being so close to Egypt, there could already be a few clubs courting SA’s most successful mentor.
But what does Mosimane’s remarkable football journey tell us about ourselves as South Africans and what we’re capable of? At a basic level, it says there’s nothing stopping anyone from being a great ambassador for our country, so long as one works twice as hard as Mosimane towards attaining that goal.
When I say Mosimane’s success no longer surprises us, it’s because of what he achieved at his very first club, SuperSport United, at the start of his coaching career in 1999.
Between 1999 and 2007 he won the SAA Supa8 in 2004 and Nedbank Cup in 2005 and was runner-up in the league in 2001-02 and 2002-03, laying a solid foundation for Gavin Hunt, his successor at United, to win three successive league titles at the club after his departure.
You could see it then in Mosimane’s eyes, his work ethic and detail in his work. Showing everyone that SA was blessed with a coach who wouldn’t compromise his values and his “Mosimanean” style when it came to what he wanted to do.
Over the years we’ve seen Mosimane surround himself with some great minds that he believed could enhance his work and some of those, Cavin Johnson (assistant coach), Kabelo Rangoaga (fitness coach) and Musi Matlaba (performance analyst), are with him at Ahly.
But in answering my question on what could go wrong? I thought it could be a rough start to next season in the Egyptian league after their Champions League success and expectations running high..
Mosimane took this job knowing the risks all too well. He knows he will be on his bike the moment things go pear-shaped in the Egyptian capital. But the signs of good things to come are far too many to worry about anything for now.
The question of what could go wrong may well be substituted by “what could stop Mosimane from flying to greater heights from now onwards?”.
What we’re indeed dreaming of and expecting when we look at Mosimane’s extraordinary journey, is him being announced at one of the biggest clubs in Europe in the not too distant future. I’m saying this because he’ll soon be asking himself: “What more do I need to achieve in Africa?”
When not finding an answer to that particular question, Mosimane will be well within his rights to look to Europe or the oil-rich countries in Asia for more success. And that can only inspire everyone in SA to dream more.
For now, only the sky looks to be the limit for the Kagiso-born coach furthering his “Mosimanean” style wherever he wants.
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