Pitso’s big appetite for Africa
Caf Champions League is like a Grand Slam to the driven Sundowns coach
THE love that Pitso Mosimane has for the Caf Champions League beats the appetite he has for domestic honours.
The Mamelodi Sundowns coach’s CV is loaded with multiple titles and achievements. His coaching career dates back to 2001 when he was still at the helm of SuperSport United.
From there on, his career blossomed as he turned SuperSport into cup specialists -Mosimane delivering both the SAA Supa8 and the Absa Cup trophies into Matsatsantsa’s cabinet. And they were into no less than three other cup finals
In 2007, Mosimane left the club scene to join Bafana Bafana as an assistant coach on a permanent basis and was with the national team for the 2008 Africa Cup of Nations, 2009 Fifa Confederation Cup and 2010 Fifa World Cup.
After the World Cup, Mosimane took over as head coach and was in the position until 2012.
Mosimane didn’t wait long for his next job as Patrice Motsepe entrusted him with leading the fortunes of his club – Sundowns.
It was as if he had never left the club scene, Mosimane quickly returning to his winning ways, delivering trophies to Chloorkop at a regular rate.
Mosimane boasts three Absa Premiership titles, Telkom Knockout, Nedbank Cup, Caf Champions League and the Caf Super Cup.
But despite all of these accomplishments, Mosimane’s love affair with continental competition has been his motivation to achieve more success.
Sundowns recently crashed out of the group stages of the Champions League but Mosimane has already set his sights on the next edition of the competition which is scheduled to start in November.
“We are preparing for the Caf Champions League. We are using the (local) league to prepare for the Champions League. What is key is the Champions League so that we can represent South Africa for the fifth year in a row in the competition. We can’t let the country down. When you see the club rankings in Africa, you need to see a South African team. That’s key for us,” the ever-ambitious Mosimane said in an interview with media after beating Golden Arrows 1-0 in the league on Wednesday.
Sundowns won the Champions League in 2016, beating Zamalek in the final.
“National agenda is important for us. We will play top eight next season. The likes of Telkom Knockout and the Nedbank Cup, they always come. We’ve already qualified for them. You don’t have to worry about those. You must win the big ones. You must go for grand slams. There’s tournaments and there are grand slams,” he added.
Sundowns qualified for the next edition of the Caf Champions League by winning the league last season.
Mosimane also reflected on their whirlwind two-match ‘tour’ of KZN with the win over Arrows following a thrilling 3-3 draw with AmaZulu.
“We’ve got four points out of six plus we scored four goals. (Of course) we don’t look that convincing.
“If you really look at it, after five games we’ve kept three clean sheets. I don’t think it is bad for our supporters here. They saw four goals in two matches,” he explained.