Pride comes before a fall, Mr ‘Jingles’

ONCE upon a time, Pitso Mosimane told all and sundry that he was the José Mourinho of Africa.

In terms of quotable quotes, yes. In terms of confidence, yes. In terms of arrogance, yes. In terms of winning ... hell no.

Mosimane and Mourinho are chalk and cheese.

Mosimane has got a couple of trophies and a league title under his belt. But he cannot hold a candle to Mourinho.

The Portuguese is a league winner in every country — Portugal, England, Italy and Spain — where he has coached.

What Mosimane has going for him is a raging fire in his belly to succeed. I was with him on Wednesday and asked him how he was feeling ahead of the trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Mosimane’s Mamelodi Sundowns are 1-0 up on aggregate and play the secondleg tie against DRC giants TP Mazembe this afternoon.

And just so you know, like it was when Orlando Pirates visited that corner of our continent, the match won’t be televised. Don’t ask me why because nami angazi (even I do not know). Viva Twitter, our telly today, all day.

Responding to my question, Mosimane was his usual confirogant self. To the uninitiated, confirogance is a combination of confidence and arrogance in equal measure, something Mosimane is abundantly blessed with like no other.

“Bra B, we have enough to come back alive. As long as the match officials do their job, we are through,” said “Jingles”. They better be through. While they are reasserting their authority at home, Downs — who have captured the domestic championship a record half-a-dozen times — are inconsequential paper tigers in continental competition.

That situation must be a thorn in the side of that quintessential entrepreneur, club president Patrice Motsepe.

Mosimane and Mourinho’s comparison spills over to their masters. Some see Motsepe as the equivalent of Mourinho’s boss — Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Both men have mindnumbing wealth and that’s putting it grossly mildly.

Both have soccer teams on which both spend extravagantly. Both don’t think twice about entertaining an itchy finger by pulling the trigger on a coach for whatever reason.

But most importantly, both crazily crave the Champions League. The two bosses and their coaches have one thing in common: a crazy crave for Champions League glory.

Mourinho has two Union of European Football Association Champions League titles via FC Porto and Inter Milan.

Chelsea gave Abramovich one when they annexed it under Roberto di Matteo.

It is the African version that Motsepe wants Mosimane to deliver, yesterday.

The boss demands that the class of 2015 must do better than the crowd of 2001 who reached the Confederation of African Football Champions League final and lost 4-1 on aggregate to Al Ahly of Egypt.

Mosimane is a proud man. It is a sore point on the personal and professional front that the self-proclaimed Mourinho of Africa — as claimed during his days as Bafana Bafana coach — was followed by the Mbombela dancing debacle.

To the uninitiated: Bafana danced up a storm in a mistaken belief that they had qualified for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations when they actually didn’t, thanks to a misreading of the rules.

That saga scarred Mosimane for life. He bounced back by winning the league from under the noses of Kaizer Chiefs in sensational style last season.

I bet on my rickety jalopy that he backs himself to repeat the feat now that he has reduced the gap between him and the log leaders, Chiefs, to eight points with a game in hand and six games to go.

Heck, he is going for a hattrick because Sundowns are chasing the league, Champions League and Nedbank Cup.

We won’t see the match but today is the day for Mosimane to take a step closer to realising his Mourinho of Africa mantra.