The South African Football Association (SAFA) have honoured Pitso Mosimane for his historical achievement of securing the CAF Pro license and also endorsed the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools.
SAFA president Dr. Danny Jordaan and Mosimane held a joint-press conference on Thursday, which was called to hand over Mosimane’s CAF Pro license to the South African tactician.
Mosimane became the first South African coach to achieve the CAF Pro license, a course which he had started in 2019 but was interrupted by Covid 19 and only finalised recently in Morocco.
“For us it is quite a historic milestone in the history of South African football,” SAFA president Dr Danny Jordaan said.
“What we have here and why we are gathered is to recognise the final qualification of the CAF Pro license, the candidates were selected not just on coaching but also achievements. The candidates either won CAF Champions League, Confederations Cup and other major competitions of CAF.
“What we’re going to hand over to coach Pitso Mosimane is the CAF Pro license, which is equivalent, the same as the UEFA A license. The A license, the Pro license means that this coach is now qualified to coach any team anywhere in the world.
“He stands as the first South African to be counted amongst such coaches, that has now graduated, certificated and recognised throughout the world. This is just to confirm that his contribution, his coaching ability is recognised, not only on the continent but also at home.”
In addition, SAFA also endorsed the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools as the development of players and coaches at school level will roll out countrywide with the vision to transform South African football.
‘Jingles’, arguably Africa’s best coach at the moment, will use his expertise and status to give back to the local game and will develop the next generation of youngsters via the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools.
“Just about two weeks ago, we talked about school sport and of course we agreed that one of the things we must do is to strengthen school sport in this country as a foundation to eventually transform Bafana Bafana into a very competitive team to be among the best on the continent,” Jordaan added.
“Next week Monday, in PE we’ve invited everyone from our 52 regions who is in charge of school sports to go there because FIFA is running a special-focus program to focus on school sport.
“When I was talking to him about this important matter of school sport, I was quite encouraged about the initiative he has taken in this regard. We are happy to be handing over a recognition certificate of a Pro license coach, who is not thinking only at the top about the CAF Champions League and the AFCON but at grassroots where the players come from.
“If we can fix those things in the long term, South African football, we’ll be in a much better space.”
Mosimane is currently without a club after leaving Al Ahly two months ago, where he won back-to-back CAF Champions League titles, the CAF Super Cup, Egypt Cup and two bronze medals at the FIFA Club World Cup during his spell with the Egyptian giants.
He has since embarked on a Coaching Masterclass Series with his technical team in conjunction with his agency MT Sports which began at Royal AM, while he was also a special guest at the Citizens week with Tanzanian giants Young Africans Sports Club.
