‘Maybe I am still a plumber,’ says victorious Pirates coach Ouaddou in swipe at doubters

It goes without saying that Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has served up a massive humble pie to a lot of people who doubted him.  

Ouaddou got his Buccaneers coaching tenure off to a poor start with successive defeats in the Betway Premiership and that led to ridicule and doubting Thomases questioning his capabilities for the job. 

Ouaddou, who coached Marumo Gallants last season, was a surprise appointment by Pirates to replace the much loved and hugely successful Jose Riveiro. 

After those successive league defeats to Marumo Gallants and Sekhukhune United, Pirates regrouped and now they are on a run of five wins and one draw in all competitions and are among the pacesetters in the campaign.

On Saturday in front of a packed and bouncing Mbombela Stadium, Ouaddou led Pirates to a fourth MTN8 success on the trot with a 3-0 extra-time victory over Stellenbosch FC. 

As Pirates reached the unprecedented feat of winning the tournament for the fourth time in a row, Ouaddou also registered his first major trophy as a coach in the PSL. 

Asked to reflect on stinging criticism he received at the beginning of the season, Ouaddou said it comes with the territory.

“I don’t know if I have to go deep into that, you know we can have many interpretations and I don’t want that because I am a peaceful man and I love people, life and work,” he said after Pirates beat Stellenbosch FC. 

“I am happy for the players, the club and management and chairman for this victory. It doesn’t give me more credit because you have to prove yourself every day. 

“We have to win games, we have to always show our competencies and this is what I have been doing since I was a 15-year-old at the academy. If you play in Europe, you need to be three times better than the Europeans. 

“I have been fighting since I was 15 years old and I am still doing it now as a coach. I still have to work very hard every morning to show the people that I am able to coach a big club in Africa.” 

Ouaddou praised his technical team.

“I want to give credit to African competencies. We won the cup with African competencies and that is good. I have to give credit to them because people think the coach won the cup, but I didn’t. 

There is still a lot of football to be played this season and Ouaddou spoke about the importance of humility. 

“I have to give credit to my staff, players and management because we work as a team. Together we can achieve more and I believe in the competencies and we have to remain humble. 

“You don’t have to be selfish and think that you are the best. I am not the best, I am working with competent people and a lot of them make the club and the coach look good. 

“Winning this trophy doesn't mean I am a better coach than two months ago, maybe I am still a plumber or carpenter to many people. I don’t think of myself as being better than coach Steve Barker. 

“I have big respect for the coach [Barker], he is a very good coach and he has an interesting team. It is a club that is stable and they have been professional for a long time. 

“But I am happy to win the trophy.” 

Ouaddou also spoke about the recent road accident he and other members of the team were involved in.

“What I can tell you is that it was dangerous and I am happy to be on the bench and speak in front of you. Life is short sometimes, we were lucky and we thank God. 

“I would like to thank the personnel at the hospital who did a good job looking after us.” 

Now that the MTN8 has been successfully defended for the fourth season on the spin, Ouaddou turns his attention to continental football with the Buccaneers taking on Lesotho minnows Lioli FC in their qualifier clash in Bloemfontein on Saturday.