Mamelodi Sundowns chairman Tlhopie Motsepe has opened up on why the club stuck with coach Miguel Cardoso after the Portuguese missed out on the 2024/25 CAF Champions League title.
Over the years, the Champions League became the Brazilians’ top priority. Failing to win it cost former coach Rulani Mokwena his job after he could not get past the semi-final hurdle in the 2023/24 campaign.
Cardoso’s efforts to end Sundowns’ continental drought also drew blanks when Pyramids FC beat the Brazilians in the second leg of the final in June 2025. The coach was then six months into his job, having arrived at Chloorkop in December 2024 to replace Manqoba Mngqithi, who had taken over from Mokwena.
However, Cardoso got it right last season when he delivered the Champions League trophy to Sundowns. It ended Masandawana’s decade-long wait for the prestigious trophy. Cardoso also recently guided Masandawana to clinch the FIFA African-Asian-Pacific Cup, further justifying the club’s decision to keep him.
THE BIG QUESTIONS TLHOPIE MOTSEPE RAISED BEFORE DECIDING ON MIGUEL CARDOSO
After losing to Pyramids, Cardoso endured some backlash from Sundowns fans for not using club captain Themba Zwane in that final. It was even more painful for Sundowns fans because Pyramids were playing their first final ever and humbled seasoned campaigners like the Brazilians.
Despite the coach arriving at the club midway through the season, Masandawana had only the Betway Premiership title to show for their efforts. But Motsepe says nothing warranted them firing Cardoso.
“An important factor was the feeling that I had to say, ‘Can we really release somebody in the short space, in this bumpy period?’ He took us to the final of the Champions League, which we hadn’t been in for the past nine years,” said Motsepe in conversation with Robert Marawa.
“‘Can we let go of somebody who allowed our players to express themselves and play with such bravery at the Club World Cup?’ If we are just going through this period right now. Football is a passion-driven business. We live and die by the passion of the game. I think we are all in this game because of passion. But it’s very important sometimes to be able to remove yourself and assess the bigger picture.
“If we let go of coach Miguel, as you say at that time, who knows if we would have won the Champions League or the African-Asian-Pacific Cup?”
HOW THE FIFA CLUB WORLD CUP SAVED MIGUEL CARDOSO’S SKIN
After losing the Champions League final, the Brazilians headed to the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup in the USA. They did not pass through the group stage after edging Korean side Ulsan HD FC 1-0, before losing 4-3 to Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund. They then drew 0-0 with Brazilian heavyweights Fluminense to finish third in their group.
“What I did believe in as well at that time was the fact that there was some adjustment that needed to happen. But there were elements that we saw at the Club World Cup that just showed us the ‘shoeshine and piano,’ a Mamelodi Sundowns that was touching something that we hadn’t really touched before or embodied before,” Motsepe went on.
“Okay, yes, maybe we weren’t playing as openly as we had done in previous seasons. While we adapted slightly in terms of our openness, we definitely strengthened in terms of our robustness.
“I think that was a beautiful lesson that we had to learn. Champions League after Champions League, when I stepped in, we were getting knocked out in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.
“It wasn’t that we weren’t the better team in those semi-finals or quarter-finals. With due respect to all the teams that beat us, they deserved to go through because they did what was needed to be done; put the ball in the back of the net and conceded less goals than us.
“So, you don’t bring someone in and then at the first sign of shakiness you let them go. Unless the results and the performances are so bad.”
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