Pitso Mosimane keeps leading the way for South African football coaches.
First he was the pathfinder into international football, cruising at orbital level winning two Champions Leagues with Al Ahly in Egypt and third place twice in the Club World Cup, and taking a rare step outside the continent for an African coach breaking into the Middle East market. On Wednesday, Mosimane became a doctor, another unusual plaudit for a South African coach — that honour is usually reserved for administrators or playing greats.
Moments after steering his craft into uncharted waters again, Mosimane surveyed his academic surroundings at the University of Johannesburg, where he shared the stage with intellectuals and new doctors who had pried apart rare locusts to earn that title, and savoured one of his achievements.
Mosimane, with his exploits that began with turning Mamelodi Sundowns into a domestic trophy machine and 2016 winners and now regular knockout stage competitors and a continental force in the Caf Champions League, broke down the door into international coaching for South Africans. His first step out of Africa after Al Ahly in Cairo was a success, steering Al Ahli, a fallen big three team in burgeoning Saudi football, back to the top flight after arriving when they were floundering in the second tier Yelo League.
There has to be some element of that achievement in the recognition from UJ. It’s one thing to be an ambassador for a country in your achievements, when you open doors for your countrymen, that’s an achievement at a higher level.
Clad resplendently and somewhat awkwardly in academic garb, Mosimane could savour the South African coaches now following in his footsteps.
Fadlu Davids followed Josef Zinnbauer, who he was assistant to at Orlando Pirates, to a brief stint in Russia. Last season the pair steered Raja Casablanca to a remarkable unbeaten season winning Morocco’s top flight Botola. The former Maritzburg United coach and player has taken a job at big club Simba SC in Tanzania’s emerging Premier League. He is just 43.
Bradley Carnell did not follow in Mosimane’s footsteps so much as carve his own path. Built on a playing career that saw the Bafana Bafana left-back play 134 games in the Bundesliga, Carnell started internationally as New York Red Bulls assistant coach from 2016 to 2022. Then he took the job as coach of expansion team (a new club established by Major League Soccer in a city that did not have one) St Louis City, who he steered to first in the Western Conference in 2023 and fourth overall. He is 47.
Then, of course, there is Rulani Mokwena. Mosimane’s protégé assistant at Sundowns steered the Brazilians to two Premiership titles after becoming head coach in October 2022, losing one game and setting a new points record (73) in 2023-24, while reaching two Champions League semifinals and winning the inaugural African Football League. South Africa’s 37-year-old coaching wunderkind has signed up to test himself in an environment as grand and imposing in scale and history as Al Ahly, at Moroccan giants Wydad Athletic.
Mosimane was asked about these developments that have come in his wake, as he has said, to paraphrase, ‘forging a path where there’s no path’.
“There are always challenges wherever you go or whatever you do. Anything that has not been done, somebody must do,” he said. “If you mention people like Fadlu, look where they are now, look where they started; creating and finding the path.
“And the guys do speak to me and obviously when they go to those parts of the world they’ll always be asked, ‘Do you know Pitso?’ Now there’s trust in South African coaches that we can do something. A South African coach can win a league at Raja, a South African coach can got to Simba, coach Wydad.
“So ja, we need to create a path, but above that we need to praise [fellow coaches]. Because you can’t lead when you don’t praise — then you are selfish, jealous. And that won’t help the nation.
“I think coaches like Gavin Hunt will follow and why not? The guy has won four Premiership titles — can’t he be in that space?
“Let’s explore — you know how much I speak about coaches who come to South Africa, when they don’t contribute. We should know who needs to come here.
“And look what happens — the coach of TS Galaxy [Sead Ramović] finds an opportunity to go to North Africa [signing this week to replace Zinnbauer at Raja]. They trust the South African product now.”
Co-operation and praise among coaches has not always been a strong point of bosses in the Premiership, where rivalries often come to the fore in the form of wars of words.
Look what has happened now – Fadlu will play in the Champions League, so will Ramović; the rivalry between him and Rulani will continue, and the rivalry between Raja and Wydad. If you want to see a rivalry watch those teams play each other.
— Pitso Mosimane
An example of mutual respect among coaches was Mosimane’s African coaching luminary colleagues Florent Ibengé, the Congolese who won the 2021-22 Confederation Cup with Morocco’s RS Berkane, and Aliou Cissé, who won the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations with Senegal, were in the auditorium on Wednesday for the ceremony.
“Ibengé, Cissé, in South Africa, we don’t all know these people and their names. But look at who won the Confederation Cup, who won the Afcon?
“These are the people who are not really celebrated in South Africa because, I’m still saying, we are still learning continental football. But look what has happened now — Fadlu will play in the Champions League, so will Ramović; the rivalry between him and Rulani will continue, and the rivalry between Raja and Wydad. If you want to see a rivalry watch those teams play each other.
“So let’s see the fire. I think, with the interviews, I can see Rulani is always in the media — I think he’s enjoying the space there. He must be careful of that space — it’s not easy. You need to be scarce in the media.
“But yes, now we can talk about it; I’ve always said it, that we have the product. Now everybody is happy coaches are leaving. It will come to the players — they will follow. And it’s good for the country. It creates space, economy and we change people’s lives.”
Mosimane said he has not spoken with Mokwena since the Wydad move.
“I don’t need to speak to Rulani now, I’ll speak to him later. Let him settle now. If he needs anything, he knows, we are friends, he can call.
“He will settle. He needs to be a little bit smart because the culture is not the same as in South Africa. But he will learn fast. There you have to be a little bit calm. It’s different because once you don’t do well it becomes a problem.”
