Jingles’ living his dream

If you’ve ever cared to watch new Al Ahly head coach Pitso Mosimane’s post-match interviews on television or read his quotes on our sport pages, you are most likely to have concluded that “Jingles”, as he is affectionately known, is an arrogant coach.

Yet sometimes a certain amount of arrogance is justified, especially if you back it up with a slew of trophies.

Raised on the streets of Johannesburg township Kagiso, the same ‘hood’ that produced kwaito superstar group Mafikizolo, Mosimane has gone on to become a multimillionaire after about 20 years of coaching.

His latest bonanza comes from Egypt, when he left Mamelodi Sundowns to put pen to paper on a two-year deal that is estimated to be worth R2 million a month.

Jomo Sono, the man who helped Mosimane as a young footballer at Jomo Cosmos and watched him grow into being the most successful club coach South Africa has seen, is well aware of Mosimane’s cocksure attitude, but sees it as a vital part of his success.

“I have always had a good relationship with Pitso. He stays five minutes away from my house.

“Most of the time we bump into each other at the petrol station and we start to talk a lot of nonsense,” Sono tells the Saturday Citizen, also highlighting a more gentle side to Mosimane’s character.

“He is a very soft person, maybe that is what people don’t notice about him. The arrogance has [also] always been there, even when he was a player.

“I think if he was not arrogant, he was not going to be successful. He’d end up listening to every Tom, Dick and Harry. He has got his own mind, even when he was young at Cosmos, he was outspoken.

“Some say he got the arrogance from me, but I don’t know.”

“I spoke to him…when Kaizer Chiefs had opened a huge gap between themselves and Sundowns in the league [this season]. He called me and we spoke about it, I said ‘look, this is life, hang in there and anything can happen in football’.

“I told him he must never say he won’t win … it is not over until the last game. After he won the title [on the last day of the season], he called me to thank me,” Sono adds.

Mosimane’s trophy cabinet is the most glittering in the Premier Soccer League as it houses five league titles, five domestic Cups and the Caf Champions League, paired with the Caf Super Cup.

All of those, with the exception of an MTN8 at SuperSport United, were won with Sundowns.

At some point in his playing days, Mosimane was the most expensive player in South Africa, when he moved from Cosmos to Sundowns in 1985.

“He was really a hard worker and one of the best strikers that Cosmos has produced,” said Sono. “I am not surprised that all of this is happening to him. Pitso used to stay behind training and just kick the ball.

“We have always kept communicating, even when he was abroad and at Bafana Bafana, he would call me and we’d talk about players and all that.

“I wish him the best of luck, he deserves it, he worked hard and he will continue to work hard, I know for sure. He is the best coach in this country, black and white. With all his tantrums, he is still the best. Pitso has a lot of humanity, people really struggle to see that.”

On social media, Mosimane’s photos are a big hit when it comes to memes and in real life, he does seem to be quite an animated figure, very expressive, too, particularly when he has lost a game.

About 15 years ago, he pierced his mentor’s ears with insults (not to be repeated on these pages) after his SuperSport side lost to Ezenkosi in the Coca-Cola Cup final 4-1 on penalties.

“Out of all the years that I have known him, we have only fought once and it was in 2005 after a cup final,” said Sono

“Cosmos were playing SuperSport in Pietersburg (now known as Polokwane). Pitso was talking before the game… you know him, blah, blah, blah, saying this and that.

“Being the experienced campaigner, I just kept quiet. He had very good players at SuperSport and I played with unknowns from the townships.

“We equalised and I closed the shop and threw the keys out the window – same thing he did last time Sundowns played Chiefs [to beat them 1-0]. I parked a double-decker bus and we took the cup on penalties.

“After the game he was livid, saying my team was playing sh*t,” Sono laughsas he recalls the insults an infuriated Mosimane hurled at him.

“After some time, we got together and we spoke about it, we laughed about it for years.

“Pitso is the best and one thing I can tell you is that he adores his family very much. His wife Moira supports him through and through. That is why he has gone on to reach greater heights and live his dream.”

– news@citizen.co.za

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