‘No player more important than team’: Cardoso looks the part as he’s named Sundowns coach

Miguel Cardoso didn't look at all out of place when he was surprisingly introduced as the new Mamelodi Sundowns' coach at the club's headquarters in Chloorkop on Tuesday. What was shocking was Sundowns' decision to sack Manqoba Mngqithi.

The Brazilians coach becomes an ultra-rare case of a boss fired while his team top the league. He got the chop alongside assistants Romain Folz and long-serving goalkeeper coach Wendell Robinson when the club still look on course to defend the Betway Premiership and do well in the Caf Champions League, where they'd drawn two group matches ahead of welcoming Moroccan giants Raja Casablanca on Sunday.

Admittedly, one of those draws came at home against group minnows AS Maniema Union, a result that does put pressure on Downs, though not the amount a club of their stature cannot recover from. A win on Sunday would have seen the Brazilians right back in the fray. More damaging for Mngqithi — a Sundowns technical servant since 2014, at times as a co-coach — was a missed opportunity at a first trophy as sole head coach being shocked by top flight rookies Magesi FC in last month's Carling Knockout final. 

But Cardoso clearly had left a lasting impression on Downs' management, particularly the club's technical director Flemming Berg, when he guided Esperance to the final of last season's Caf Champions League having beaten Sundowns 2-0 on aggregate in the semifinal. The Tunisian outfit lost 1-0 on aggregate to Al Ahly in the final.

Berg suggested he had been a fan of the football played under Cardoso in his stints with Portugal's Rio Ave and Celta Vigo of Spain, and told Sundowns to be wary of Esperance under the coach.

“You discuss and talk football with coach Miguel there's a clear sign that what he stands for as a coach is what we stand for as a club. Appointing at coaches Mamelodi Sundowns will always be based on the playing style and the philosophy of how Sundowns wants to play football,” Berg said.

“We won't appoint a coach who doesn't fit that style of football. Then it's a question of developing it. Of course we've done a lot of research — this is a big decision for Sundowns.

“There are so many things that convinced us that this is the right decision. I saw also the Esperance game last year and I did my research on them because we were playing against them I watched all their [Champions League] games and I could see what Miguel was trying to do at Esperance.

“I remember in the first leg of the semifinal telling the chair [Tlhopie Motsepe], 'Look, this is going to be difficult because this is a well-structured, organised team that plays good football.' And of course we struggled in the two games.

“So the fit for us, when it comes to the way of playing football, is very good. We're definitely aligned and of course everything has to develop. If you're standing still, you're going backwards in modern football. And we're certain that in Miguel and his team [three assistants are arriving with the coach, to join existing senior coach Steve Komphela and goalkeeper coach Kennedy Mweene] and all our analysts we have a very strong set-up. We're very confident we can take Sundowns to the highest level and win the trophies we all want.” 

This seems to explain why Sundowns never officially named Mngqithi as the 'head coach' when Rulani Mokwena left the club in the off-season. From the way Berg spoke, Cardoso might always been the Dane's preferred Sundowns target and Mngqithi was named 'head of the technical team', rather than Downs naming him in a caretaker capacity. That means, probably unfairly to Mngqithi's standing, he was always basically on probation in his role. 

What didn't help Mngqithi's cause was his rush to change the team's playing style in a marked manner, preferring quick build-ups and wing play instead of the patient philosophy Mokwena instilled with great effect in a hugely successful 2024-25, where Downs lost one game and set a point record (72) winning the Premiership.

Mngqithi also didn't win the MTN8 — Downs bowed out 2-0 on aggregate to Stellenbosch FC in the semis — and Carling also counted against Mngqithi. The coach seemed to battle to win over all of his players, which came to a head at one stage when Mngqithi sidelined senior stars Teboho Mokoena and Khuliso Mudau. 

But what should Sundowns fans expect from Cardoso, the 52-year-old Portuguese coach many hardly knew of before he outsmarted Mokwena in last season's Champions League semifinal.

After taking Esperance to that final and winning the Tunisian league — Cardoso's only career trophy — after taking over midway, he had his contract extended to 2026. The wheels came off in the league this season, prompting the Tunisian giants to sack him in October after just nine months at the helm. Cardoso oversaw 25 games, winning 15, drawing seven and losing just three at Esperance. 

“Obviously I knew already of the team [Sundowns]. We had to study them very deeply last year when we met in the semifinals of the Champions League,” Cardoso said.

“Only with that deep study we were capable of facing the difficulties we had. And that's part of being the coach, to be updated on the best teams in Africa, in the world even, to follow the patterns of the development of the game itself.

“But when I was offered the job there was another moment of preparation where we studied not only what was happening during the season with the team, but how the team was playing. It's clear the players are technically well developed. They suit the style of a coach who wants to impose himself in games. Because that's the base, to have quality players.”

“I want a team that can control the games. Controlling the games means the team must be solid in different moments of the game.

“You must understand very well what to do with the ball, obviously, but you also have to move the opponent and find the right spaces to attack. I think that when teams play Sundowns you really have to understand the question of spaces — where are the spaces, how we can create, how we should use the space?

“Having control of the game also has to do with being very aggressive in the moment you lose the ball because as much as you control the game and as much as you're aggressive, there's a moment when you're going to lose the ball. You need, at that very moment, to be very strong.

“I think that's the moment where [Sundowns] has to grow a lot. For that you need to have solidarity among the players. I prefer for the players to run free for seconds and make an effort to recover the ball immediately [up the field] rather than coming down [the field], reorganise and defend to win the ball and then having to go forward again. I think that moment can give us a lot in the future.

“That's one of the things we'll have to work on from the first day, and we have players for that. We have players with the mentality that needs to be stimulated to perform. They need to be closer to each other for that moment. And that comes from the offensive organisation.

“Obviously when we play high-level games the other teams have the quality to go in attacks to get out of our pressure and take the ball into the spaces you have. At that moment we also need to press the ball and reorganise until the moment we're in defence again.

“That means we have to be strong in rest defence then we need to reorganise ourselves. And that is also solidarity and commitment because there will be no player more important than the team with me. No-one. Because we only perform the task as a group and we understand that we have quality, but we put the quality together because football is a collective sport not an individual sport.

We need to understand there are spaces for us to immediately counterattack to hurt the opponent. Do we have players for that? Yes, we have. Do we have players who can get out from the pressure of the opponents? Yes, we have.

—  Miguel Cardoso

"Having defensive organisation is part of football. There's a moment we need to have defensive organisation and for that we need to understand that we need to be solid, organised and a collective.

“Working for the future means working obviously for tough games, top games, top challenges when these decisions will be made. And when these decisions will come, we'll have to win as a team. 

“We need to understand there are spaces for us to immediately counterattack to hurt the opponent. Do we have players for that? Yes, we have. Do we have players who can get out from the pressure of the opponents? Yes, we have.

“We even have a goalkeeper [Ronwen Williams] who can help us a lot with that [with his distribution]. Also, being stronger on the set pieces. We need to create more goals on set pieces. We need to work on this a lot.

“But work is time and time you win by winning games. Start winning the next, and the next one, and continue to develop this mentality. To win, you don't win on the first day of the week or the first training of the week. This is the spirit I'm going to bring to the club.

“There's time for good gestures and there's time to have pleasure in the training sessions. I believe the true winners don't come from perfection but from consistency. This is the spirit we need and this is the spirit I want for myself and from the players. We need to be ambitious, but 'ambitious' is not something you say, but something you show with an attitude, and no-one destroys or kills an attitude. It's impossible.” 

Such words come across as genuinely inspirational. With them, you see Sundowns have a coach similar to Mokwena in the way he thinks and talks about the game — the energy, fire, passion and intensity. It makes you wonder why they let Mokwena go in the first place.