‘Those are fairy tales. That would never happen’ — Pitso on working in Europe

Working at a top European league is so unattainable that it would be “a fairy-tale story” for a black African coach.

So says Pitso Mosimane, who has just become the first African coach and Ahly the first club from the continent to win back-to-back Fifa Club World Cup bronze medals, attaining the feat beating Saudi Arabia's Al-Hilal in Saturday's playoff.

In the wake of more records set as coach of the Egyptian giants, Mosimane was asked if he still harboured aspirations of working in Europe, and whether the English Premier League would be his dream destination.

“Those are fairy-tale stories, my brother. That would never happen,” the coach, controversially overlooked for Fifa's coach of the year shortlist for 2021, told a press conference of the SA Football Journalists’ Association on Wednesday.

Mosimane related a conversation he had with Manchester United legend Dwight Yorke — when the two were panellists for SuperSport's TV coverage of the 2018 World Cup — which drove home the challenge black coaches face securing jobs in Europe.

“Dwight Yorke said to me, 'Forget about Europe, you're never going to go to Europe. If we [black players] have scored goals in the Champions League, and have created so much history at big clubs like Man United, we have qualified for [coaching] badges from Europe, and we never get that... you will never get that'.

“He said, 'You want to tell me that with all the black coaches in Europe nobody can coach [at top level]?'”

Mosimane continued: “Are you serious guys? No-one can coach? All these guys who won the Champions League [as players]? So it's unbelievable that it's the way it is and you can't do anything.

“In Europe you had Tony Yeboah, Dwight Yorke, Andy Cole, John Barnes — big names. Where are they? None of them can coach?

“That's what Raheem Sterling was saying. He said, 'We grew up watching these people as our heroes, playing in the EPL, but I'm yet to see one of our legends coaching a club, [even] in the first division, at least'. When Sterling said that, [for me] it confirmed Dwight Yorke's story.

“So ke sharpo ka Europe, bafowethu (which translates roughly to “it's fine with Europe, my brothers”). Let me stay in the continent, and probably the Gulf, because at least our footprint is in the Gulf. We have to continue doing football, we don't have to continue doing football in Europe.”

Mosimane said his interactions with global superstar coaches — such as his encounter with Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel on the pitch in Abu Dhabi between the Club World Cup playoff match and final — encouraged him that his work is being noticed by his peers.

“What I acknowledge is that the coaches in Europe have started to know us. I mean Thomas Tuchel humbled me,” Mosimane said.

“I was minding my business and he walks up to me, and it's unbelievable what he said to me. I mean, this guy is a Champions League winner, Super Cup winner, European Coach of the Year and Club World Cup winner, and what he said was amazing.

“To have a meeting with Arsène Wenger that lasted one-and-a-half hours when I thought it was going to be 10, 15 minutes ... Didier Drogba, the N'Golo Kantés and John Terrys, Antonio Rüdiger — it's unbelievable how these boys know everything.

“For me that's important [that] you are being acknowledged for the job you do. That shows we have something, we can do something. So we'll meet in the World Cups, it's OK.”

Mosimane has won five trophies — the Caf Champions League twice, Caf Super Cup twice, and Egyptian Cup — since his move to Cairo giants Ahly from Mamelodi Sundowns in September 2020.

Ahly beat Brazil's Palmeiras on penalties in the Covid-19-delayed 2020 Club World Cup third-place playoff, and thrashed Hilal 4-0 in the 2021 bronze match.

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