LISTEN TO EPISODE 12 OF THE COSAFA SHOW!
Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane became just the third tactician ever to win the CAF Champions league with two different clubs as he followed up his 2016 triumph with Mamelodi Sundowns with another star for his personal badge in the 2019-20 final.
Even better, Mosimane guided his Ahly side to victory in the final over bitter rivals Zamalek, ensuring that just a few months after arriving at the club, he has already written his name into their rich history.
It is a first Champions league title since 2013 for the Cairo giants, and Mosimane used his know-how to brush aside old foes Wydad Casablanca in the semifinals, as well as repeat his 2016 final victory against Zamalek.
He spoke to the South African Football Journalists Association this week about that triumph and much more, and you can hear a snippet of his thoughts on the latest episode of The COSAFA Show.
“I have been in a whirlpool since I have been here. It has not been easy. Some might say it was easier because the [Egyptian] league was already won with only five games left. But it is not like that, at this level, on this stage, results are very important,” Mosimane says.
“You might say, ‘OK, but the team was already in the semifinals of Champions League’. Yes it was, but for me to get there I had to win all the games that are in between the semifinals. If you lose those games, you know the story, you won’t be here.
“Those games in the [Egyptian] league were pressure games for me, everybody wanted to see if they could trust me, what would I bring to the team, what would I do differently to what had been done because the league was won.
“That is the pressure, to keep winning. I had to start my own journey by winning games. You have start that journey by showing the difference you will make to the team. You can’t come with the same thing that they had.”
On this week’s show there is also a discussing with LaLiga Santander’s Managing Director for South Africa, Marcos Pelegrin about a recent partnership with COSAFA and the plans for the future of their collaboration.
Pelegrin also discusses their other initiatives in Africa and the effect of COVID-19 on LaLiga.
