Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena has been labelled as one of the best coaches in South Africa and the African continent as a whole.
Mokwena, 36, despite his young age has been entrusted with leading the ship at Chloorkop after the technical team changes earlier in the season.
He has overseen Sundowns’ record run of collecting 14 successive wins in the DStv Premiership, with 10 of those coming with him at the helm as sole head coach.
But Mokwena has also left a footprint in the broader South African football fraternity due to his work with amateur side Black Poison, as proven by his former player and protégé Sinethemba Badela.
He was assistant at Cape Town All Stars last season but is now holding the fort and attempting direct promotion at the relocation All Stars in Gauteng after replacing Allan Freese.
Badela doesn’t mince his words when it comes to his appreciation for Mokwena, who glaringly speaks of his former coach.
“He’s played a big part in my coaching career, I played for him at Black Poison and also started coaching the juniors there,” he told iDiski Times.
“He helped me a lot by asking one question if I still wanted to play or can venture into coaching. I made that decision very early to move into coaching. I draw a lot of inspiration from him, I think he’s one of the best coaches in the country if not in Africa as a whole.”
Badela also opened on his continuous discourse with Mokwena, even nowadays, revealing the Downs boss advises him to look to European side’s for solutions.
“We always discuss football and he watches the team and he would say ‘look, I think you should do this and that’. We watch overseas football, and we say maybe we can steal a little bit of what Manchester City is doing there and implement it in our teams,” he continued.
“One of the best (pieces of) advice he’s given to me is that you must never accept to coach bad players, so that’s what we try to do, get the good players and put them in the right positions to try and help the team.”
All Stars currently sit in sixth place with 26 points from 15 games, but have one game – Monday’s clash at Cape Town Spurs – in hand over their promotion rivals.
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This story first appeared in the iDiski Times newspaper, edition 88, which you can read it for free on our website.
Source Link Rulani Labelled As One Of SA’s & Africa’s Best
