Milford coach reminisces on coaching Benni McCarthy & Arsenal star

Milford FC coach Mandla Qhogi has shared captivating anecdotes from his time at Orlando Pirates including coaching legendary striker Benni McCarthy and a former Arsenal star.

Qhogi spent the most part of his coaching career at the Buccaneers as a youth coach, mentoring different age groups.

In 2012, he served on the senior team’s technical staff during Augusto Palacios’ interim tenure. He was elevated from the development. Qhogi contributed significantly to the team’s league championship victory.

His primary responsibility was training the strikers, a department that included McCarthy and former Arsenal attacker Luís Boa Morte.

In this role, he had privilege to work with star-studded strike force, including McCarthy and former Arsenal attacker Luís Boa Morte.

Qhogi says despite him being unknown, they treated him with respect and he developed positive working relationships with them.

MANDLA QHOGI RECALLS HIS TIME AS ASSISTANT COACH AT ORLANDO PIRATES

“If you look at that season, I was more tasked to do individual training with the strikers,” Qhogi told FARPost.

“And in the line-up of strikers, there’s Boa Morte, who was the [Fulham] assistant coach now, Benni McCarty was in that team, Rudolf Bester was in that team, Tokelo Rantie was in that team, Bongani Ndulula was in that team, Thulasizwe Mbuyane was in that team.

“We would do extra training individually with the strikers so that when it came to do tactical work and generate the individual part from us doing that.

“So, it was easy working with the players that I’ve mentioned and they were not the players that would give you problems because they understood what Augusto Palacios wanted during that season because they were chasing the league.”

Qhogi is now in charge of Milford and his side one the strong contenders for the league this season.

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