Newly appointed Wydad Casablanca head coach Rulani Mokwena has vowed to bring glory days back to the Moroccan giants following the confirmation that he has signed a three-year deal with the club.
Mokwena was announced yesterday as the new coach of the three-time CAF Champions League winners on a contract that will see him lead the club until 2027.
Wydad wasted no time in approaching the 37-year-old PSL Coach of the Season just hours after the announcement of his departure from Mamelodi Sundowns.
“Immediately after Wydad found out that I had left Sundowns, it only took the president and the board a couple of hours to get in contact with my agent. Whom I also want to thank,” said Mokwena during the announcement.
The former Orlando Pirates coach has a mountain of a task ahead of him of rebuilding the team and leading them back to partaking in continental competitions having failed to qualify for the upcoming CAF tournaments after finishing sixth on the log.
“I understand how big this challenge is. Believe me, I don’t come here with my eyes closed. The negotiations took quite a lot of time because there were quite a few things that we had to agree on. One thing I really appreciate is that the board is as ambitious as I am. They have committed themselves to giving us full support to wake up a sleeping giant. Our job is not to teach Wydad how to win as a football club. I mean [they have won] 22 league titles, three [CAF] Champions Leagues. It’s a team that knows how to win,” Mokwena added.
The Soweto-born coach admitted that having a similar philosophy and football understanding with Wydad president Hicham Ait Menna convinced him to accept the project and pledged to go the extra mile in bringing success to the club.
“I can tell you that there was one line that convinced me that this was the right project. When Mr Hicham asked if you could give us only 25 per cent of how you played in your previous club. I said, ‘I would give you 26 per cent. I will add an extra per cent. When you work with people who believe in the philosophy and the ideology and the way you view football, it makes it a little bit easier because there is a common understanding. The language is the same. We want to win in a certain way,” the coach concluded.
Written by Siphesihle Soni