Chronicle Editor
AL Ahly’s South African coach Pitso Mosimane admits that he is “conflicted” about taking on Kaizer Chiefs, one of his home nation’s biggest clubs, in today’s Caf Champions League final.
The Cairo giants are hoping to win a record-stretching 10th title with Ahly while Chiefs are in the final, a one-off tie in neutral Morocco, for the first time.
“I’m playing against my home country, so I’m conflicted,” said Mosimane, who led South Africa’s national team between 2010-2012.
“Yes, I am patriotic, but I must look after my family first. I must look after the people who pay my salary and allow (me to pay for) my children to go to school, so I have an obligation.
“When I’m here, I’m wearing two hats, a South African hat, but also an Egyptian hat. The Egyptian one comes first at this point in time, but when I’m back in South Africa it will be South African.”
Distant childhood passions will also be playing on Mosimane’s heartstrings as he bids for a third Champions League title as a coach.
“I grew up as a Chiefs fan,” Mosimane told both BBC Sport Africa and the On The Whistle podcast.
“My uncles both played for Chiefs and Pirates, but during that time Chiefs were a bit more dominant.”
Despite his affiliations, Mosimane has never played for nor coached his boyhood team (whose sole African title came when winning the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup in 2001).
Instead, he delivered great success in South Africa with Chiefs’ rivals Mamelodi Sundowns, who the former international guided to a maiden Champions League win in 2016 as well as five league titles.
Last year, Mosimane won a second Champions League with Al Ahly, who then impressed in December’s Fifa Club World Cup when reaching the semi-finals.
Only Chiefs can now block Al Ahly’s return to the Club World Cup, which the Egyptians hold in high esteem, even if Mosimane once had little expectation the Johannesburg side would make it so far.
“I never thought Chiefs would be in the final, I must tell the honest truth,” the 56-year-old said.
Chiefs eventually finished eighth in the league, so sparking the dismissal of coach Gavin Hunt last month and the return of another former Bafana Bafana coach, Stuart Baxter, for a second spell at the club.
“As a coach, I feel sorry for him,” said Mosimane of his old adversary Hunt. “I mean, why don’t you let the guy finish the final?”
Only two South African teams have ever conquered the continent — Chief’s great rivals Orlando Pirates in 1996 and, of course, Sundowns, but Ahly, unbeaten in their last 11 games, are also chasing their own history. — BBC Sport
Online Reporter