Pitso Mosimane has sent a heartfelt message to his former striker, Katlego Mphela after he started a new venture as a salesman recently.
Mphela, 38, announced his retirement from football in 2019, having played for the likes of SuperSport United, Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Royal Eagles in South Africa.
He has started his career at Jomo Cosmos and moved to French side Strasbourg in 2004, but returned to the Premier Soccer League in 2006.
His former coach, Mosimane insisted that Mphela was “a complete striker” and should be ranked among the top strikers in SA history, listing the likes of Benni McCarthy, Shaun Bartlett and Jerry Sikosana.
Upon hearing of Mphela’s new career path, Mosimane sent his former striker a heartfelt message on Metro FM, saying he must pursue his path to provide for his family, but he should also consider doing his coaching badges – offering Mphela help on his coaching journey.
“I’m happy that he’s got a career beyond football. I hear that he’s into sales now in the motor industry,” he said in a message played on Sports Night Amplified, which left Mphela, who was a guest in studio close to tears.
“Brilliant, brilliant idea. He can move forward, he’s got a name and also he still loves football, I know. He can do part-time coaching, follow his passion.
“Hopefully he’ll help us at the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools, during his part-time and he must go for soccer badges, coaching qualifications, he’s clever, he knows what to do.
“He will come up like all those coaches, who are coaching like Morgan Gould, Dillon Sheppard, all those coaches who were part of football. He was part of football, but let him follow what he’s doing right now so that he can support his family and himself.
“With time, slowly, he must join the coaching qualifications and if he has trouble with that, I’m there to support him – he knows that he can just give me a call and we speak to Walter Steenbok, then he gets qualified like all these coaches, why not?
“Then he can have a career on the business side and the football side. A very good step that he has taken, he’s moved in the right direction and that’s what we want out of our ex-players.
“All the best Killer!”
Mphela was visibly moved to tears and said he appreciated the kind words from his former coach.
“I never expected this from coach Pitso, because I know he’ busy,” he responded.
“Obviously the things he said about me and our relationship, we… we’ve come a long way.”
