Love or loathe them, Pitso Mosimane and Percy Tau own Mzansi ...
Coach Pitso Mosimane and Percy Tau during their short stint together at Al Ahly in Egypt.
Amr Abdallah Dalsh / Reuters
SPORT
It has been a while since coach Pitso Mosimane and his protégé Percy Tau departed the local professional club football scene to pursue their respective careers outside these shores.
For the record, Tau and Mosimane left the PSL in 2018 and 2020 respectively, following their player and coach collaboration at Mamelodi Sundowns, a working relationship that spanned five years, and laced with trophies.
READ: Mercedes Benz guns for Sundowns defender Grant Kekana's R1 million luxury vehicle
The two also collaborated at Al Ahly in Egypt, between 2021 and last year, after Tau’s unstable spell in Europe.
However, it is not an exaggeration that, whenever the two sneezes, the whole of SA football catches a cold.
There is no competition when it comes to individual sportspeople who regularly hog the trending lists in the domestic game.
City Press looks at what makes the duo such a regular topic that just refuses to die among South Africans:
The power of Percy Tau
When Mosimane left Al Ahly in June 2022, it was feared that his departure would impact negatively on Tau at the Cairo powerhouse.
READ: Pitso is sad about Tau
After all, it was the coach who convinced the Bafana Bafana star to return to the continent after a spell at English Premier League Brighton & Hove Albion – and significant time club-hopping in Belgium on various loan moves.
Since his move to Cairo on a four-year contract in August 2021, Tau has achieved a great deal of success at Al Ahly, even in the post-Mosimane era.
Despite a tough start to life in Cairo, Tau has proved to be an integral part of Al Ahly under Mosimane’s successor, Swiss coach Marcel Koller.
READ: How Percy Tau got his roar back with Cairo giants Al Ahly
This week, the Afcon-bound striker won his seventh trophy with Al Ahly – the Egyptian Super Cup.
The latest feat followed a few days after the 29-year-old helped the Reds to a bronze medal at the Fifa Club World Cup that was held in Saudi Arabia on 12-22 December.
It was somewhat fitting that Tau picked up his second gong from the global club tournament in the Saudi Arabian city of Jeddah, which used to be Mosimane’s home when he oversaw local side, Al-Ahli Saudi FC, who he guided to promotion last season.
The brace of medals by Tau equalled Mosimane’s record, who also boasts two medals with Al Ahly from the same tournament.
In December alone, the player - from Emalahleni in Mpumalanga - hogged the hashtag when he was voted the CAF Interclub player of the year award.
In picking up the individual accolade during the CAF Awards ceremony on 11 December in Marrakesh, Morocco, Tau became the first South African to attain this feat.
In June, Tau almost single-handedly led Al Ahly to their record-extending 11th CAF Champions League title, an achievement that led to the club’s subsequent qualification for yet another Fifa Club World Cup.
The continental club competition success was followed by another Tau-inspired performances that helped Al Ahly to secure an unprecedented 43rd Egyptian League title in July.
In lifting the Egyptian Super Cup with a 4-2 win over Modern Future FC on 28 December, Tau can look back at 2023 with a big smile as he now prepares to lead the Bafana attack at the Afcon tournament in Ivory Coast next month.
Rest assured, Tau will trend again during Afcon, especially as he's one of the poster figures of the 24-nation continental championships.
Behind brand Pitso Mosimane
Mosimane, may be unemployed after a short-lived spell in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but the 59-year-old’s name will pop up every time there’s talk about vacant coaching jobs.
His premature exit from UAE Pro League club, Al Wahda, last month came amid stories of interference by the club’s bosses over team selection, which City Press reported on in November.
READ: Why Pitso left the United Arab Emirates in a huff
Mosimane won six of the 10 matches he was in charge of at Al Wahda, registering four defeats.
"Jingles", as the coach is affectionately called, left the team fifth on the 14-club league table, five points behind the log leaders.
He also guided Al Wahda to the quarterfinal stage of the Arab Club Champions Cup.
His last match was on 4 November, a 1-0 win over Ajman Club.
Despite not attached to any team currently, Mosimane remains South Africa’s best coaching export.
Many still want the tactician from Kagiso township in the West Rand to be reinstalled as the Bafana head coach.
Mosimane is also constantly receiving the same love from some of Kaizer Chiefs supporters, who believe that the decorated coach can be a guide the Amakhosi needs to lead the club back to its glory days.
READ: No Amakhosi call for Mosimane
In just three years since Mosimane left these shores to take charge of Al Ahly in Egypt, the coach has left an indelible mark in north Africa.
During his two-year spell with the Cairo-based club, he guided them to back-to-back CAF Champions League and CAF Super Cup titles.
He also took the multiple Egyptian champions to consecutive third place finishes at the Fifa Club World Cup in 2020 and 2021, claiming bronze medals on both occasions.
For the record, Al Ahly fans had waited for seven years for Al Ahly to compete in the global club tournament.
Following a break from coaching after he left Al Ahly in June last year, Mosimane joined Saudi Arabia powerhouse Al-Ahli Saudi in October 2022.
He guided them to promotion back to the Saudi Pro League last season, after virtually starting from scratch.
Surprisingly, the club did not offer him a contract extension.
READ: The 12th man | Let’s pause and celebrate Pitso as one of the world's best
His five-month spell at Al Wahda, was unlike Mosimane, who usually sees his contracts through to the end wherever he coached.
But this has not affected his top position on the log of the trending lists.
After all, he's got 1.2 million followers on platform X (formerly Twitter) alone.
