New Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has insisted he wants to write his name in the history books of the club to follow the likes of Pitso Mosimane and Rulani Mokwena.
Cardoso, 52, replaced Manqoba Mngqithi as new Sundowns head coach, bringing in three of his assistants namely, Fabio Fernandes, Pedro Azevedo and João Araújo, while Steve Komphela and Kennedy Mweene also stayed on from the previous technical team.
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Miguel first thanked his new bosses for their trust in him, as he was unveiled during a press conference at Chloorkop on Tuesday.
“Thank you to the Motsepe family, to the persons present, who are represented by the chairman obviously. To himself, thank you very much. To the sports director, Mr Flemming Berg and to all the Masandawana family,” he stated.
“It’s a real pleasure to be here to be the head coach of Mamelodi Sundowns, and to be among you in South Africa, a country with such huge history, culture, nature, that will not make me, as a professional but also a man, grow a lot.
“I feel not only happy but a big privilege by being among you, so thank you very much for that.”
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The new Sundowns coach then addressed the club’s rich heritage and opened up on his personal objectives with Masandawana.
“Obviously it’s clear that Mamelodi Sundowns, a club with 54 years history, representing Mamelodi reason, it’s already a club with a big heritage. Heritage is history but it’s [also] very important because it’s the point were we come from,” he continued.
“We need to understand the roots of the club so that we understand the people and the expectations of the people and the identity of the club. I’m at a club with a huge identity and I will give my best not only to the happiness of the people but to represent them in the best way.
“To represent them is to go along with the objectives of the club, the values of the club. I’m a person of values, we discussed a lot of values and values also speak about the identity of the club.
“I had already the privilege to speak about it with the chairman, values like excellence, integrity and honesty will be the base of our work and will be in our heads at every moment.
“Regarding the relations we want to establish at the club, with everybody in general and also the players, and also with our fans and yourselves.
“I’m a man of the people, I like to connect with people, I’m a very humble and simple person but also at the same time I’m very demanding because I know what we need to do to win on a regular basis because that’s the demand we have – it is to win trophies, contribute to a new era of the club, contribute to the heritage that one day will be even bigger so that’s the objective.
“So that one day, and hopefully the day is very far, one day I will also be to rememberred among great coaches Pitso Mosimane, like Rulani [Mokwena], like Steve Komphela, like Mr Manqoba, I also want to leave my name among you – first as a good person, second as a good coach and third as a winner. These are our objectives at this club.”
Cardoso’s first game in charge of Sundowns will be their CAF Champions League clash with Raja Club Athletic on Sunday.
