Mokwena Rejects Zamalek Coaching Role, Open To Pirates Return
Former Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena has ruled himself out of the Zamalek job, stating he will never compete with coach Pitso Mosimane, who the club has also shown interest in.
Mokwena, who recently left Wydad Casablanca in Morocco, emphasized that Mosimane played a significant role in his career, and he would never contend with the former Bafana Bafana coach for a coaching position.
Mosimane, like Mokwena, is currently without a club since leaving Esteghlal FC in January due to non-payment.
“The easiest one to bat away will be from Zamalek,” Mokwena said on SoccerAfrica on Thursday. “I didn’t hear from them after I mentioned that I’d heard coach Pitso was also in the running for the position.”
Mokwena shares a deep relationship with Mosimane, who promoted him to Sundowns’ assistant coach in 2014 when Mokwena was largely unknown in the Sundowns juniors. Even when Mokwena left Sundowns in 2017 to join Orlando Pirates as an assistant coach and was subsequently frozen out there, it was Mosimane who brought him back to Sundowns in 2020, despite opposition from others at the club.
“My relationship, my respect for him [Mosimane] will never allow me to compete with coach Pitso for the coaching job; it just wouldn’t sit well with me,” he stated. “I pulled out, and I would rather they give it to coach Pitso.”
When pressed, “Really?” Mokwena, who was Mosimane’s assistant coach when Sundowns won the CAF Champions League in 2016, replied, “What you’re saying is what my agent said. ‘This is a big club,’ and I said, ‘My respect for coach Pitso, and what he has done for my career, is much more important.'”
He continued, “I don’t get involved in those conversations; my agent [Steve Kapeluschnik] deals with that. What I do get is once they [my agent and the club] reach a certain point, I start watching games, I start analyzing the squad, I start seeing where the team is, where the team can go. I start trying to learn the league, the competition they are playing. In terms of where everything is, I would not know.”
There is also a vacancy at Pirates, who recently parted ways with Jose Riveiro, now appointed as Al Ahly’s coach. Mokwena said that if there were contact with Pirates, he would never close the door on returning to the club.
“I just arrived back in the country,” he said with a smile before being asked if he would consider the job. “Of course, I will consider it. It is a big club, and the same people who are close to me, close to my heart, are still there. I’m very fond of Dr. Irvin Khoza [Pirates chairman]. He will always have a special place in my heart.”
