Pitso Mosimane recently turned down the opportunity to coach Bafana Bafana after Jomo Sono stepped down — not because he does not want to coach the national team, he just believes he is not yet ready for the hot seat.
There are good reasons why he was offered the top post, however. The youngest coach in the Premier SoccerLeague (PSL) took Supersport United from the relegation zone to second place last season. Mosimane was January’s coach of the month and was also in contention for the coach of the season award.
This season he has continued where he left off, taking Supersport to their first BP Top 8 semifinal and guiding the team to third place with a perfect record of having won both games they played.
Three of Mosimane’s players were called up to do national duty in Malawi in Bafana’s 3-1 win in the Council of Southern African Football Association (Cosafa) Cup last weekend — two-goal hero Patrick Mayo, Peter Khoabane and Mandla Zwane.
Five youngsters are in the under-20 team that beat Madagascar in the qualifiers of the African youth championships. Mosimane says: ”It has meant miracles are happening at the club.” Mosimane commends the management and owners of the club — M-Net’s Supersport — who have aided him in building a great team.
Mosimane outlines his ambitions for this season. ”I want to win more games than last season, draw fewer and lose less — and, more importantly, be consistent.”
His second ambition is to make it into a final of a cup competition. ”I at least want to make the final of the Coca-Cola Cup,” he says. The first hurdle to achieving this will be to beat league newcomers Dynamos in the first round on October 6.
The Supersport coach says: ”My team is mentally stronger than Dynamos and has great players with individual skills. But the players should not think it will be an easy game and take it lightly — or they will get the shock of their lives.”
During one of the team’s training sessions at the Pretoria Technikon, Mosimane shows his players some skills. The players make a few blunders but Mosimane does not shout at them, rather subtly demonstrating what is expected.
Mosimane retains the physique he had when he was a left-footed striker for Jomo Cosmos and Pirates. There’s no sign of a bulging stomach, only the body of a trained athlete.
Mosimane scored his one and only goal for Bafana Bafana on debut for the national side against Mauritius in a 1993 African Cup of Nations qualifier. He became one of the first players after the country’s readmission to international football to leave and seek his fortune overseas. He played for Ionikos in the Greek league.
He returned to South Africa where he continued to play for Sundowns and later became their youth academy trainer. During this stint he unearthed the talents of Mbulelo Mabizela and Benedict Vilakazi ,who have now become stars.
Mosimane then took a two-and-a-half-year leave of absence from soccer to further his studies as a coach. He focused on the South African Football Association’s coaching-level studies, and went to Boston College and the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU) where he did a course in sports management and sports- related human movement studies.
Mosimane returned to the beautiful game as a scout for Supersport United in the 1999 season. However, his rise at the team was not easy. He had to see players he had recommended to then-coach Roy Matthews not being signed — players such as Steven Pienaar, Shaun Potgieter, Zita Mofokeng and Brent Evans.
This pains Mosimane: ”Unfortunately I could not sign the players for I had no power to do so. Think of what could have been at Supersport had those players been signed …”
From scout Mosimane rose to assistant coach and, when Matthews left, he remained assistant to flamboyant former Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, who saved the team from relegation in the 2000/2001 season.
The reign of the ”Clown Prince” was no fun for Mosimane. Grobbelaar wanted to choose his own assistant and Mosimane was relegated to youth team coach.
All these obstacles did not deter him. Mosimane again found himself overseas, this time to facilitate a deal between Supersport United and Dutch giants Feyenoord. ”This was the highlight of my career,” he says.
Mosimane clinched the deal, which entailed that Supersport would forward talented players to the Rotterdam club, exchange coaching programmes and also start an under-13 team to be called Feyenoord Supersport. Swazi midfielder Dennis Massina looks to become the first player from Supersport to benefit from this deal after he had trials with the Dutch team early this year.
Grobbelaar fell out of favour with the Supersport management after he failed to build on his first relegation-avoiding success. The club dismissed him last season.
Moismane recommended a number of coaches but the club had only two days to get one before their next match. Mosimane was roped in as caretaker coach but the results he produced gave management something to think about.
It was definitely in his favour that 80% of the players at that time had been recruited by Mosimane. The players raised their game to pay back the man who had first given them a chance. Mosimane says: ”My first task was to instil a new training programme, get the players in the right frame of mind.”
The plans seems to be working as Supersport United have gradually risen to be among the best teams in the league, bringing them a substantial number of supporters and a piece of the sponsorship pie.