Pitso Mosimane: From South Africa to Saudi Arabia, now bidding to rescue Abha

Pitso Mosimane’s return to Saudi Arabia is a coup for relegation-threatened Abha as they look to secure their safety in the second half of the season.

Mosimane was announced last month as Abha’s new manager for the remainder of the season, the 59-year-old returning to Saudi Arabia for the first time since helping Al Ahli earn promotion back to the Roshn Saudi League.

Mosimane will be no stranger to fans of football in the MENA region, not only for his work with Al Ahli, but also for the history-making success he had with Egypt’s biggest and most successful club, Al Ahly.

A midfielder of some repute in his playing days, earning four caps for his native South Africa, it’s as a manager that Mosimane has made his name after hanging up the boots in the mid 1990s.

He served as assistant to Carlos Alberto Perreira, a former coach of Saudi Arabia, for South Africa as they hosted the FIFA World Cup in 2010, before taking over the reins full-time shortly after.

While that stint ended after an unsuccessful qualification campaign saw Bafana Bafana fail to reach the 2012 African Cup of Nations, his return to club football heralded a change in fortunes and a rehabilitation of his reputation.

Pretoria-based Mamelodi Sundowns were Mosimane’s next port of call, and it was here that he made a name for himself.

Already South Africa’s most successful club, Mosimane guided Mamelodi to five titles in seven seasons, including a hat-trick of trophies between 2017 and 2019, creating a dynasty that continues to this day. Since Mosimane’s departure, Mamelodi have added a further three titles, making it six on the bounce and 13 overall.

But it’s the vastly experienced manager’s work on the continental level that sits as his crowning achievement.

Since the CAF Champions League was rebranded and reformed in 1997, the competition had been dominated by North African sides, with clubs from Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria winning 12 of the first 19 titles.

But, in 2016, Mosimane and Mamelodi made history by becoming the first South African side to win the reformed competition, and just the second South African side to win Africa’s premier club prize in its 51-year history - after Orlando Pirates in 1995.

It was a success that elevated Mosimane’s reputation within African football and saw him named CAF Coach of the Year in 2016. So, when Egyptian giants Al Ahly were looking for a new coach in mid-2020, the South African emerged as a candidate.

Never before had the country’s most decorated club employed an African coach outside of those from Egypt, preferring to look towards Europe or South America for their inspiration.

While Al Ahly is a club that expects success, they had gone seven years without continental glory; a figurative lifetime for a club such as the Cairo heavyweights.

Within eight months of his appointment, however, Mosimane had won the competition twice, first in 2020 and then again in 2021, making him the first African manager to win the competition three times. In the process, it put Mosimane second on the CAF Champions League’s all-time list behind only Portugal’s Manuel Jose, who won four – also with Al Ahly.

“I want to dedicate the trophy to‚ of course‚ ‘Captain Bibo’ [Al Ahly president Mahmoud El Khatib]‚ because Mr Khatib gave trust to me,” Mosimane said in the aftermath of their success in 2021.

"He believed in me that I could change the fortunes‚ because Ahly didn’t win the Champions League for the last [seven] years.

“He could have gone to Europe and brought all these Europeans who are always coming to Africa to coach. But Africans‚ we can win it ourselves.”

With an Egyptian Cup, African Super Cup thrown in for good measure, and successive third-placed finishes at the Fifa Club World Cup, it was a period of remarkable success for both Al Ahly and Mosimane. Subsequently, it significantly boosted his standing in global football.

Mosimane’s reputation for having the Midas touch was only enhanced by his stint last season with Jeddah-based Al Ahli after their surprise relegation from the RSL in 2021-22. He returned the club, never before outside the top tier of Saudi football, to the RSL at the first time of asking, marking his first major achievement outside of Africa.

Following an albeit-brief stint in the UAE with Al Wahda this season, Mosimane was a man in demand, with clubs in both Egypt and South African reportedly eager to acquire his services.

But, instead, it’s a return to the Kingdom, joining the ranks of other highly credentialed managers in the RSL, taking on the challenge of keeping Abha afloat for another season.

Sitting six points from safety, it will be a big challenge in the back half of the season, which begins on Thursday when Abha high-flying Al Taawoun.

But the feeling is that, if anyone can do it, it’s the much travelled and hugely decorated Pitso Mosimane.