Former Bafana Bafana midfielder Eric Tinkler believes he can lead Cape Town City to Caf Champions League glory.
Tinkler, who won 45 caps for his country playing from 1994 to 2002, is no stranger to doing well in continental football. The 52-year-old reached the final of the Caf Champions League in 2013 as Orlando Pirates assistant coach to Rger de Sa, the Caf Confederations Cup in 2015 as head coach and the last match of the same competition two years later at the helm of SuperSport United.
“For me as a coach, the Caf Champions League is where I want to test myself,” Tinkler told TimesLIVE Premium from Cape Town City’s training ground in Hartleyvale ahead of the second preliminary round at Cape Town Stadium this weekend. City clinically dispatched Congo’s AS Otohô d’Oyo 2-0 on aggregate in the first round. They meet Angola’s Petro de Luanda — who shocked SA continental flagbearers and 2016 champions Mamelodi Sundowns in last season’s quarterfinals — in the first leg of their second round tie at Cape Town Stadium on Saturday (5.30pm).
Tinkler describes Petro as “the Sundowns of Angolan football” owing to their financial backing. “For the players to play against quality sides like Petro de Luanda, who have international players, is where they can really assess themselves as individuals and also as a team.”
Tinkler is SA’s second-most successful coach at reaching African continental finals. The first, by a long stretch, is Pitso Mosimane, who just took the step outside the continent into Asia, joining Saudi Arabia’s Al-Ahli Saudi FC. Mosimane was the architect of Downs’ 2016 Champions League success. In two years at Egyptian giants Al Ahly, who he left three months ago, Mosimane reached three finals in succession in Africa’s premier club competition, winning two, making him the second-most successful coach in Champions League history.
In Tinkler’s three finals he is yet to win a title, but he’s shown he knows what it takes to take a team far, negotiating the excruciating travel schedules and notoriously tough conditions of African club football.
“Those experiences were absolutely fantastic and the journey itself to get to those finals was extremely difficult,” said the coach who played for Cagiliari in Italy’s Serie A and Barnsley in the English Premier League in the 1990s and early 2000s. “I enjoyed those experiences and I’m happy to go back in the Champions League again. Our primary objective now is to get ourselves into the group stage, and then hopefully it can be a long journey to another final.”
For Tinkler it was the ingredients of team unity and a never-say-die attitude that took Pirates and SuperSport to continental finals. In City’s match against Otohô, those qualities were put to the test after several players tested positive for Covid-19 and Tinkler had to change his starting line-up the morning of the match. He praised his side for their winning mentality and said that he had 11 soldiers on the field, a quality that can stand the Citizens in good stead as they look to go far in their first Champions League.
Tinkler drew similarities to when a Pirates combination containing players with a warrior mentality played against Al Ahly in Egypt in 2013 and got a result on two occasions and when SuperSport went toe-to-toe with fearsome Democratic of Republic of Congo combination TP Mazembe, whose home venue in Lubumbashi is notoriously hostile, in the 2017 Confed final.
“We know we are a technically sound football team but the heart and desire needs to be there to get the result over the line in Africa,” said Tinkler, who is in his second stint as City boss, having managed the club in its infancy during the 2016-17 season, after chair John Comitis bought the franchise of Mpumalanga Black Aces. “The players see continental competition as an opportunity to expose themselves across the African continent and to scouts all over the world too.
“Getting into the group stage is extremely important and would be a historic feat for a club like Cape Town City that has only existed for seven years. I would love to try to get to that final again because once you’ve tasted that you want to be tasting it every single year. That ambition and desire still exists in me and hopefully it rubs off on the players.”
Tinkler feels SA football clubs have finally started to recognise the importance of competing continentally in forging competitive squads capable of fighting on all fronts.
“For our national team to start climbing the Fifa rankings, local clubs need to take the African adventure much more seriously,” said the key member of the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations-winning Bafana under Clive Barker. “That is where you measure yourself against the rest of the continent, and that is the point at which you can build a national team.”
Percy Tau, who is now on the books of Al Ahly, has been a bright light during a dark time for SA football. He was recently named in the Caf Champions League Team of the Decade but Tinkler bemoans the fact that there are no other big SA names out there playing in top leagues. Tinkler, who plied his trade in England, Italy and Portugal, makes no bones about wanting to see more SA players in top leagues and believes partaking in the Champions League is a stepping stone to higher honours.
“Once you get into the group stages that is where people from around the world are watching. Scouts look at players and even us as coaches,” said Tinkler, referencing Mosimane’s international exploits.
“There is a bigger and brighter world out there for SA coaches and my ambition was always to coach in Europe,” said Tinkler, who holds a Uefa A coaching licence. “I still have that desire but I know the chance of me going from SA to Europe is very slim. However, if I can get myself into the Caf Champions League and possibly lift that trophy then I stand a better chance — I see it as a small window for getting into Europe.”
City’s away leg against Petro is on Friday October 14 at Luanda’s Estádio 11 de Novembro.
