Some two years ago, Pitso Mosimane, an ambitious black South African, travelled from Cape to Cairo to deliver the big fish that Al Ahly had craved for many years. Soon famine was history in Egypt.
Once some Al Ahly legends had finished feasting on the big catch from the Nile River, they treated the fisherman with contempt, focusing on his identity instead of the big catch, questioning his every tactic, formation and catch.
The pressure became too much. Soon, Pitso Mosimane threw in the towel in June this year. His parting statement summed up the good and evil he had experienced in the land of civilization.
“Our first mission was to complete the job of obtaining the CAF Champions League title. With little time and pressure, we, together with the rest of the team, fulfilled that mandate and caught the big fish in the Nile River. We delivered. We were then mandated to bring the Egypt Cup back home and with a strong team. Mandate was fulfilled,” the former SuperSport mentor said.
The Reds’ former stars had their way. Their wish that the team they hold so dear should be coached by either their own or someone from Europe and not from this marginalised lower half of Africa was granted.
However, if Al Ahly legends who were behind the anti-Mosimane brigade thought Portuguese Ricardo Soares’ hiring would turn around the club’s fortunes, what unfolded on the pitch proved otherwise. It proved that football speaks the language of performance and not skin colour.
Little wonder, Soares left Al Ahly on Tuesday worse off than he found it. Indeed, nowhere near a soaring club but instead snoring and falling with reckless abandon.
Management took on referees for their perceived biased officiation and threatened to boycott all domestic cup games and field youth team players in the remaining league games in protest. However, that proved to be an emotional decision.
All Al Ahly fans wanted were results. They could see they were starving again, so inevitably, they remembered their saviour Mosimane. In the terraces, they kept chanting Pitso Mosimane! Pitso Mosimane!
If losing the Egyptian Cup final 2-1 to Zamalek was unacceptable, then failing to wrest the Egyptian Premier League title from the eternal rivals was unbearable for the long-suffering Al Ahly faithful.
Overall, in the just-ended league campaign, Ahly suffered four league defeats, won 20 games and drew 10 times to finish 17 points behind champions Zamalek.
It is the first time Al Ahly have finished outside the top two positions on the log table since 1992. And there is a looming danger of the team finishing the rest of the season empty-handed.
Such statistics pale in comparison to the second-place finish under Mosimane’s reign last season when Al Ahly wound up the season four points behind Zamalek.
When Soares took over the mantle from Mosimane, Al Ahly had lost just once in the league. In three months, the Portuguese posted three losses.
Overall, the South African took charge of 97 games, won 65, drew 22 and lost 10 across all competitions.
The former Bafana Bafana mentor bagged two CAF Champions League titles in three attempts, two FIFA Club World Cup bronze medals, two CAF Super Cup titles and the Egyptian Cup.
The league title Al Ahly won in Mosimane’s first season is credited to his predecessor Rene Weiler who resigned saying he had missed his family back home in Switzerland.
Despite such apparent success, some Al Ahly legends were quick to punch holes in the team’s performance even after a win. In contrast, Soares was subjected to such harsh treatment once or twice.
Such a reaction raised questions on the motive behind Al Ahly legends’ selective criticism considering that Soares presided over an underwhelming reign of just nine wins in 17 trophyless games in charge of the Club of the Century.
That ulterior motives drove the Al Ahly legends’ bashing of Pitso Mosimane was evident in the team’s president Mahmoud El-Khatib’s recent remarks.
“By numbers and achievements, Mosimane made history in this club that nobody can deny, but who was leading the campaign that was directed against him?” El-Khatib said three weeks ago.
Mosimane, too, has on several occasions indirectly suggested that he must have been the victim of where he comes from, saying: “support the new coach…he is from Europe.”
Ultimately, Al Ahly paid the price of their legends’ contempt with a fellow African coaching Africa’s Club of the Century. You know who is having the last laugh!
