AFRICAN football giants Wydad Athletic Club could not contain their delight after the discarded Mamelodi Sundowns coach put pen to paper in the Moroccan city of Casablanca yesterday when they declared: “Welcome aboard, coach Rulani Mokwena! Ready to lead us to victory!”
It came as a surprise that Wydad had snapped up Mokwena so quickly. It was speculated that the South African coach first wanted to see the club’s facilities, and enquire about new signings and what the mandate was.
Now armed with a lucrative three-year contract from the three-time CAF Champions League winners, Mokwena will assemble his technical staff as he sets about preparing the club for the new season.
This move will be a dramatic career change for Mokwena who enjoyed great success from the time he was appointed sole head coach at Sundowns. After his promotion from co-coach with Manqoba Mngqithi, Sundowns won two DStv Premiership titles and the inaugural African Football League title.
Last season, the star-studded side narrowly missed out on the chance to go unbeaten in the league, suffering their only defeat in the final match of the campaign.
A week after this disappointment, the great Sundowns team, who had secured their seventh Premiership title on the trot, lost the Nedbank Cup final to rivals Orlando Pirates. This also did not go down well with the club and Mokwena admitted that much afterwards.
By this time, Mokwena had repeatedly commented about the pressure and the “tiredness” he was feeling, and by the time he was shown the exit door at Chloorkop, he saw the bullet coming.
Mokwena’s Champions League failure brought about by the team’s demise in the semi-final round marked the beginning of the end for the young coach. Tunisian giants Esperance dumped Sundowns after winning the home and away ties 1-0, for a 2-0 aggregate triumph.
This time, even before Mokwena can start thinking about continental football, he’ll face massive challenges in Morocco’s domestic league. Wydad, an 87-year-old club, is the country’s most successful club with 22 league titles.
They will be up against traditional rivals Raja Club Athletic and FAR Rabat who collectively have won more titles than Wydad.
Mokwena’s immediate task will be to assemble his support staff and early indications are that he will call on fellow South Africans to fill key positions like the post of performance analyst.
Ironically, Mokwena has landed a plumb post in north Africa while South Africa’s most decorated coach, Pitso Mosimane, is unemployed.