Ricardo Katza remembers his first lunch with Pitso John Hamilton Mosimane.
The year was 2003. Katza was on the verge of moving from Hellenic to SuperSport United, coached by Mosimane then.
Understandably, Katza expected the lunch with his new mentor to be dominated by all things football.
To his surprise, it was not. While they munched on delicate morsels of food at a Sandton restaurant, all talk of football was swept off the table.
“Before I signed for SuperSport United, he invited me over for lunch and insisted that I bring my girlfriend. He never even spoke about football. Pitso just wanted to get to know me. He was interested in the person more than the game,” Katza told FARPost.
PITSO MOSIMANE’S HUMAN TOUCH
Katza went on to have a sparking decade-long career at SuperSport. But that meeting with Mosimane gave the now-retired footballer a few valuable lessons about man management.
“He taught me you take care of the person first before the tactics, and the person will bring the tactics.
“In 2003, he invited me to come and have Christmas at his house. Again, it spoke about being interested in the person. He wants to know if you have a house before you get a car. He wants to know if you’re studying,” he said.
The 58-year-old Mosimane may not have been addressing the Katza lunch. However, some things he said on the podium at a recent Nedbank Cup event answered why he would do that.
“You coach a human being first before a football player. If you get a human being right, you will get the footballer because he is talented.
“They always say that it takes more than talent to be good. I think you know that many players are talented worldwide in any sport. But talent alone is not enough, so you need more than that,” the Kagiso-born coach said.
The compassion and desire to have a deeper understanding of the players at his disposal was a feature of Mosimane’s highly regarded stint at the helm of Matsantsantsa. Katza remembers him, particularly for his response to an SOS he sent him in the morning’s wee hours.
“He’s a family man, so he understands when you say a baby is sick.
I sent him a message at 3am and told him my wife is due, so I won’t be coming to training, and he said I could take as much time as I want,” Katza recalled.
MOSIMANE AT THE PINNACLE OF SA FOOTBALL
Almost 20 years after that lunch with Katza, Mosimane stands at the pinnacle of South African football.
After overseeing an impressive redecoration of the cash-flush Mamelodi Sundowns’ trophy cabinet, he did more extraordinary exploits in Cairo with Al Ahly.
‘Jingles’ had led Sundowns to five Absa Premiership league titles‚ the CAF Champions League, Caf Super Cup‚ the Telkom Knockout, and the Nedbank Cup.
He added two Champions League titles in Egypt, a domestic league title, two more CAF Super Cup trophies, and the Egyptian Cup.
His ability to harness talent has stood out over the years. Prodigious but rough-around the edges talents like Keagan Dolly, Bongani Zungu, Percy Tau and even Khama Billiat all became superstars under his watch.
Over the years, he has constantly built many of these relationships not only in South Africa but even in Cairo and Saudi Arabia, where he is based now. This is mainly because he closely watches their life on and off the pitch. He is the father figure who ensures that his players make the right decisions when nobody is there to cheer their every move.
“I make sure that we get important things out of the way first, and the most important thing is to know their families and to visit their families, go inside their families,” explained the former Bafana Bafana mentor.
You’d think language would be a barrier in far-flung Egypt or Jeddah, where his Al Ahli is based, but not with ‘Jingles’.
MEETING THEIR FATHERS
“Even in Saudi Arabia, I go inside the families, especially the younger ones, and I meet their fathers because it is important to be with the person.
“They must know that you are with them, and they mustn’t see you as a coach but rather as a brother, friend, father or guardian. They are already talented; that’s what you will get.”
The three-time Champions League winner uses the example of A students at school who later fail to make it in life because of the lack of that human touch.
“How many kids we know at schools that were A students, but they never made it in life? It is because we don’t deal with the human side,” he said.
Interestingly, his prodigies don’t only get the softer side. The man is tough and tender. He is the lion and the lamb.
His former SuperSport prodigy Gerald Modabi recalls one time when he bought a ride that Mosimane felt was too fancy for his age.
“He wanted me to return that car to the dealer because he felt I was too young to own that kind of car. I kept dodging him all day until he went and parked his car far from my house and walked back to wait for me. When I thought he had gone, I drove home, and just as I got out of the car, Pitso showed up. I took the Golf 3 GTI back to the dealership; I was 19 then,” Modabi told FARPost.
Former SuperSport United player Thabo September remembers how a passionate Mosimane would call, sometimes in the early hours of the morning, to tell him to watch a particular player that he needs to emulate.
HE BREATHES FOOTBALL
“It’s the time he puts towards his art. He breathes football, and he eats football. Even the jokes are football-related. He will call you at 1am and tell you to watch Barcelona at 1am to watch someone in your position, and you’ll talk about it tomorrow. He is so passionate. I’ve never worked with any coach whose everything is just football,” he said.
Like Katza, September said Mosimane’s personal touch made his players believe they could die for him on the pitch.
“Pitso wants to know everything that’s happening with his players. He has been a player and knows you will perform poorly because of personal challenges.
“I’m sure he knows everyone in his team and where they stay – he will ask you about family members’ welfare. He has a tough side, but sometimes he wears the fatherly cap. He knew us all at SuperSport United. We were one big family,” he said.
Off the field, the man seems to have a knack for picking some of the best young coaches as his backing staff. When he led Golden Arrows to their first-ever piece of silverware in 2009, Manqoba Mngqithi was rightly acknowledged as one of the brightest young minds in South African football.
A few years later, he sat next to Mosimane, and together they plotted the downfall of opponents week after week.
IN TOUCH WITH MODERN TRENDS
Rulani Mokwena is another prodigious coaching talent that spent time as Mosimane’s apprentice.
The current Sundowns head coach, Mokwena, believes Mosimane has what it takes to stay at the top.
“When you reach the level of success he’s attained, the common demand for that success is passion. You can’t get to that level without demonstrating an intense desire to be the best and achieve excellence,” Mokwena told FARPost.
“He demonstrates day by day. It’s a consistent level that he shows throughout. There’s more to him than passion. There’s a work ethic, a relentless drive to work hard than everybody else. He’s astute, knowledgeable, extremely in touch with modern trends, and does much homework. He invests much time into his coaching.”
And now on the verge of taking Ahli back to the topflight of Egyptian football, his backroom staff is young, ambitious South Africans.
Pitso John Hamilton Mosimane is on course to rewrite history with them, thanks to his unfailing personal touch.
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