Pitso Mosimane

thumb|Pitso MOSIMANE(Middle) Pitso John Hamilton Mosimane (born 26 July 1964) is a South African former professional football player and current manager of the South Africa national soccer team. Quotes I accidentally became a coach, I wanted to be a strength and conditioning coach. I was never in top condition as a player. I always wanted to run more, but I didn’t know what to do. We didn’t have people who understood specific football training drills, we just used coaches from athletics. We used to do 12-kilometre endurance runs in the woods and mountains, which I hated. Footballers cover that distance on the pitch but it features stops, starts, jumps, twists and moving sideways. I preferred training sessions which incorporated that and it made me think, ‘Why can’t we do things with the ball?’. So I decided I wanted to be a coach that focuses on football training. I was like a sponge — absorbing everything that he did. I learned a lot from him about movement, tactics and how to organise your team. If you’re a coach who just wants to arrest the slide you can do that, but that doesn’t mean that’s what you want long-term. I changed the whole team and recruited different players with the right mentality. We won the league in my first full year. I like my teams to build from the back, we need to keep the ball and dominate our opponents. When we don’t have possession, we need to recover the ball as soon as possible Sometimes you copy things as a coach. I like how (Jurgen) Klopp plays with his counter-pressing. I like teams that are really principled in terms of defending too. So I take all those good things together We set up short-term and long-term plans with the club but during the process our visions became different. When you are working towards a vision, don’t ever think the process will be smooth. I’ve been a coach for over 20 years and won 19 trophies using this recipe and then you tell me to use a different one. I believe in my recipe and I can’t change it or compromise it. So we were not aligned and parted ways amicably., Former South Africa boss Pitso Mosimane on his hopes for the future of African coaching,Feb 12, 2024,The Athletic by J. Harris External links Category:Soccer players from South Africa Category:1964 births Category:Living people