Pitso would not have let Ngcongca go

Pitso Mosimane was moved to tears yesterday, as he said he believes that if he had stayed at Mamelodi Sundowns, Anele Ngcongca (right) may not have been in KwaZulu-Natal, where he passed away in a car accident on 23 November.

It was Mosimane who brought Ngcongca to Masandawana in 2016, and the right back was a part of a Sundowns side that won three Absa Premiership titles in a row between 2017 and 2020.

The defender’s contract was not renewed this season, however, and he was set to join AmaZulu, before tragedy struck, as the 33-year-old was flung from a vehicle on the N1 just outside Mtunzini.

“To lose him like that, a very young guy, is very sad for me. I fought for him to stay at Sundowns, I didn’t want him to leave,” said an emotional Mosimane, in an interview with the South African Football Journalists Association.

“I fought for him to start a new (coaching) life there. We need to change the culture, where we teach players ( about coaching) right away. I started looking at him being part of the youth program, like Surprise Moriri. I don’t know if I stayed, maybe he would have been there with us,” added Mosimane, who left his post at Sundowns to become head coach at Cairo giants Al-Ahly.

Mosimane also explained how he was the coach who persuaded Carlos Alberto Parreira to use Ngcongca at the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

“I spoke to Parreira and said that this boy would do well at the World Cup. We played him against France and I never regretted it.”

South Africa won that game 2-1, though they still bowed out of the competition in the group stages.

Mosimane was an assistant to Parreira and scouted the right back while he was in Belgium.