Another masterstroke? A closer look at new Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou

Orlando Pirates supporters need not despair — they have a new coach with a pedigree going back to a strong playing career in Europe and for Morocco and who has shown potential in his fledgling career on the bench.

Pirates have had a habit in recent years of picking some relatively unknown coaches who have shown some potential and getting something from them. And in such an educated, urbane a figure as French-raised, 46-year-old former Morocco defensive stalwart Abdeslam Ouaddou, they might have again.

As a lanky, 1.91m centreback who sometimes turned out in midfield, he played in the Uefa Champions League and in the Premier League for Fulham, amassing close to 200 games in France’s Ligue 1. He won a league title with Olympiacos in Greece. Ouaddou was an Africa Cup of Nations runner-up with the Morocco in 2004, earned 68 caps and captained the Atlas Lions. 

As a head coach he has achieved less, but he is young and hungry. He coached Morocco's Mouloudia for four months in late 2020 and early 2021, Loto-Popo FC in Benin for two years from 2021 to 2023 and AS Vita Club in the Democratic Republic of the Congo for nine months in 2024, where he won his one trophy, the Coupe du Congo. In three months at Marumo Gallants he steered them from relegation desperation in the 2024-25 Betway Premiership to a creditable 10th place.

That he has worked so little in South Africa would seem a major part of the reason so many Bucs fans were left feeling hollow at the news of Ouaddou’s appointment on Monday. The other part is Mamelodi Sundowns’ former multi-trophy-winning coach Rulani Mokwena had been linked to a return to Pirates, where he was assistant to Milutin Sredojevic and a caretaker coach in the late 2010s.

But there is more to Ouaddou than just his coaching record. For one, his coaching ideas were formed playing at the top level. For another, yes, that three months at Gallants were that impressive. Another is, like Riveiro, he comes across as a coach who is a football thinker and intellectual to the core. That is backed up by his qualifications — the Uefa B and A coaching licences, Uefa Pro and a master's degree in professional club management. And his one trophy is actually more than Riveiro had arriving at Pirates.

Ouaddou also began his senior career on the bench as an assistant to Algeria’s much-respected Djamel Belmadi in 2020 for Les Fennecs and lists a giant of the game, France great Jean Tigana, among his coaching influences from his playing career.

Ouaddou was born in Morocco but grew up in France to financially challenged parents. That country’s immigrant communities can be a harsh environment and he described his childhood neighbourhood as a “ghetto” in an interview with Robert Marawa’s Marawa Sports Worldwide three weeks ago, while still coach of Gallants.

His parents didn’t want him to play football — they didn’t think it was a job he could earn from. His father told a teacher, trying to get a playing licence for Ouaddou when he was just six, he could not “‘afford to pay for his treatment if he gets injured and he is so skinny, I cannot accept’,” the coach told MSW.

“But the teacher told him if we take a licence with a club we are automatically insured. He accepted and the adventure started there at the age of six.

“The first time they recognised football as a job was when I signed my first contract with Fulham and was able to buy them a house and get them out of the ghetto in France.”

He joined the French club he would be most associated with, where he also later started as a coach in the youth ranks, AS Nancy at 19 in 1998 and he impressed so much Fulham came calling with a £2m price tag in 2001.

It’s very important when you join a club, before speaking about the game model, to gain the trust of your players, of the people you are working with, your staff. And when I say gain trust, it’s not to play a role but to show them by being yourself, by your words, by your competencies, that you can achieve things with them, together. 

Joining a Premier League side so young is not easy and Ouaddou battled for game time in his two years at Craven Cottage, but was moulded there as a player and in many respects, later as a coach. He formed ideas that seem sure to stand him in good stead given the resources for the first time in his coaching career at a club like Pirates, with their impressive accompanying array of backroom staff of analysts and fitness boffins they have assembled.

“My time at Fulham was one of the best periods in my career. I grew up there, I got experience, I saw and really discovered what a professional environment is. Because all the details counted for a player when you arrived in England.

“The clubs do everything to think only football. This is what gave me the love of that club. I still go there every Boxing Day, when I can and when I am invited with my family. It’s proof that these people, even 15 years after, have a lot of respect for people who played for that club. I wanted to stay there, but I arrived very young, at 22, and at the same time I was an international for Morocco and we had a lot of important competitions and I needed to be a club regular to have game time.”

Working under Fulham manager Tigana also formed Ouaddou’s football outlook beyond his playing career.

“I can tell you this man helped me a lot as a player but even now as a coach I try to pick some things from all the coaches I played under and it helped me a lot to implement my vision and game model. I’m still in touch with Tigana and don’t forget he was one of the best players in France and the world — part of [France’s] best four players in a midfield with [Michel] Platini, Alain Giresse and [Luis] Fernandez.”

Apart from the formation of his game model, Tigana’s influence on Ouaddou’s coaching was also “about the human values”.

“It’s very important when you join a club, before speaking about the game model, to gain the trust of your players, of the people you are working with, your staff. And when I say gain trust, it’s not to play a role but to show them by being yourself, by your words, by your competencies, that you can achieve things with them, together.

“And when you establish this foundation, I think you can make great things. People sometimes ask me, ‘How did you manage to change the face of Marumo Gallants?’ First of all, I told them I didn’t do it alone, I did it with a lot of people. But it’s to gain the trust of my players. As soon as you get this strong foundation of trust now you can fly, you can ask them whatever you want. And afterwards came the implementation of the game model on the pitch and by video too, to make them understand exactly what you want from them on the pitch.”

Pirates’ players adoration of Riveiro and trust in his tactics by the end were the ingredient that made for his success. It seems natural they might have an initial scepticism for a new man after that. Ouaddou’s value in the importance of winning trust, that he’s a top ex-player who will know how to speak to players — a players’ coach — can only stand him in good stead at Bucs.