Mosimane didn’t want Ngcongca to leave Mamelodi Sundowns
"I started looking at him being part of the youth (coaching) program, like Surprise Moriri," said the Al Ahly head coach.
The late Anele Ngcongca might have stayed at Sundowns if Pitso Mosimane was still there. Pic: Gavin Barker/BackpagePix
Pitso Mosimane was moved to tears on Thursday, as he said he believes that if he had stayed at Mamelodi Sundowns, Anele Ngcongca may not have been in KwaZulu-Natal, where he passed away in a car accident on November 23.
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It was Mosimane who brought Ngcongca to Masandawana in 2016, and the right back was a part of a Sundowns side that won three Absa Premiership titles in a row between 2017 and 2020.
The defender’s contract was not renewed this season, however, and he was set to join AmaZulu, before tragedy struck, as the 33 year-old was flung from a vehicle on the N1 just outside Mthunzini.
“To lose him like that, a very young guy, is very sad for me. It was in KZN … I fought for him to stay at Sundowns, I didn’t want him to leave,” said an emotional Mosimane, in an interview with the South African Football Journalists Association.
“I fought for him to start a new (coaching) life there. We need to change the culture, where we teach players right away. I started looking at him being part of the youth program, like Surprise Moriri. I left, I don’t know if I stayed if he would have been there with us,” added Mosimane, who left his post at Sundowns to become head coach at Cairo giants Al Ahly.
Mosimane also explained how he was the coach who persuaded Carlos Alberto Parreira to use Ngcongca at the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Mosimane was an assistant to Parreira and had scouted the right back while he was making a name for himself in Belgium.
“I spoke to Parreira and said that this boy would do well at the World Cup. We played him against France, he played against Franck Ribery and I never regretted it.
“Anele had never played in the top flight in South Africa (in 2016) and I went to Belgium to bring him to play for Sundowns.
“He came in the first week and got injured and was out for four or five months – what a player, what an experienced player, we used him at right back in the Champions League instead of Thapelo Morena. In the local matches we would use Morena and then bring him on to wrap up the game.
“Anele told Thapelo how to play right back, he did not see him as a competitor, he was one of those guys who said ‘I will leave that jersey in the right place in the dressing room’. Anele, Wayne Arendse, Tiyani Mabunda, Hlompho Kekana, Dennis Onyango, they ran the dressing room.”
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