Former Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad Athletic Club head coach Rulani Mokwena has revealed that the most painful moment of his career was when Orlando Pirates opted to replace him with Josef Zinnbauer.
Mokwena, who is now coaching Algerian giants MC Alger and has had a great start to life in North Africa, has coached some of continent’s biggest clubs already, despite his young age.
After starting as assistant to Pitso Mosimane at Sundowns, being part of the technical team that won the club’s first and so far only CAF Champions League in 2016, Mokwena joined Pirates under Milutin Sredojevic and became interim coach when the Serbian left.
However, after 14 games the club opted to bring in German manager Zinnbauer, which Mokwena has now recalled as the “most painful moment” of his career so far.
“I was head coach, but Pirates after 13 games (sic.) decided they wanted a different coach – someone more experienced,” Mokwena said on the African Five-a-side podcast with Maher Mezahi.
“I don’t talk a lot about it but it was probably the most painful moment in my career, stepping down from Pirates.
“Even though the chairman, Dr. Khoza was insistent of me to stay but how things had happened and many things happened in that time, hurt me a lot, a lot.
“So my career, in that time, I don’t think I was thinking about anything else but being on the pitch and finding happiness for football once again, and I could’ve gone to Black Leopards but it was not possible.
“Then I got the opportunity to go to Chippa, but it was not even about the club, not even about… It was just about finding love for football again, being on the pitch again and coaching again.
“Because I was worse, and still today I’m deeply scared by what happened and that’s why I don’t talk a lot about it.
“The conditions and the context to go to Chippa was completely different and then I was fortunate enough to go back to Sundowns.”
‘I hope Dr. Khoza & Dr. Motsepe know’
However, Mokwena also insisted that he is extremely grateful to both Pirates and Sundowns for giving him an opportunity to coach at a relatively young age, and he will forever be despite catching some “deep scares” at both clubs.
“I’m grateful, I know I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for my time at Mamelodi Sundowns, and Orlando Pirates,” he continued.
“Both Dr. Khoza, Dr. Patrice Motsepe… Maybe that is why leaving both clubs has hurt me so much. Still to today it evokes a lot of pain, when I think about my time when I had to leave.
“But you only experience pain when there is a deep devotion. There is love and a certain connotation money cannot buy. That is because of my appreciation… and I hope they know this – I hope Dr. Khoza knows this, I hope Dr. Patrice Motsepe knows this, and the family.
“I hope they know, I might have made mistakes, for sure, and I hope they forgive me for the mistakes that I’ve made. And also, I hope they know there are many, many things that hurt me, as a personal human being, not as a coach – hurt me, deeply.
“But I think I will find, as time goes, the space of forgiveness, because we have to forgive and move on. But I hope fundamentally that I appreciate them.”
On Friday, Mokwena will lock horns with his former side, Sundowns when MC Alger host the Betway Premiership champions in the CAF Champions League.
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