Anthony Laffor has said that it was the ambition of former Mamelodi Sundowns Head Coach Pitso Mosimane that turned Masandawana into African champions.
Now at Chippa United, the former Liberian captain told Rob Delport in the last edition of iDiski Times that when Mosimane took over from Dutch legend Johan Neeskens, winning on the continent was already on Mosimane’s mind.
And while there were doubters at the club, the current Al Ahly coach, and reigning African champion, would be proved right when Sundowns lifted the CAF Champions League trophy in 2016.
Laffor says that it was a very special time in his career, but it also took a lot of hard work and dedication from the whole team to achieve what they did.
“It was magical but I’m telling you it was hard work and a lot of dedication, especially because in Sundowns we had a coach like Pitso Mosimane,” Laffor said in Edition 7 of iDiski Times.
“The first year Pitso came to the club things were not going very well, because he took over from Johan Neeskens, you know. So Pitso’s first game I can remember I scored in a game, we went to Free State Stars.”
“And then from day one, Pitso always thought that he wanted his team to play in the Champions League and he wanted this team to conquer Africa.”
“And now some of the guys, some of us were like ‘this guy, you’re not even conquering the league, but you want to conquer Africa?’ And he always spoke about Zamalek and then TP Mazembe, and we had an opportunity to beat those guys!”
“So we saw that okay, we can beat them in the group stages, we can also do more, and I think Pitso dug deep until we all achieved together, because I wouldn’t say it was because of any individual, it is just that the team spirit was very high.”
Laffor was released by Sundowns at the start of the 2020/21 season, and joined Chippa at the end of last year.
