You can accuse Pitso Mosimane of anything under the sun, but never of not speaking straight from the heart about topics closest to his heart. The passion in his voice shone through as the former Al Ahly coach explained what it takes and how really difficult it is to win the CAF and UEFA Champions League in the first part of this interview in last week’s edition of this publication. And as he files questions from Soccer Laduma’s Delmain Faver about the Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools in Part 2 this week, it’s not hard to tell this is his ‘baby’. To that end, he is investing a lot of energy, time and even finances into seeing his brain child become a big success. It could be because he, after all, is a product of school football. So, what exactly is he looking to achieve with the PMSS programme? Why does he think teachers should resist the urge to put their love for football coaching ahead of their profession’s demands? Why is the corporate world a little hesitant to get behind initiatives such as his? The Kagiso-born mentor answers these questions candidly in this fascinating conversation.
Delmain Faver: Coach, welcome back as our conversation continues. You previously said that you will not be doing any favours for any of your ex-players. We see former Kaizer Chiefs defender Tlou Molekwane is part of your programme and he actually spoke about it in his recent interview with Soccer Laduma. Have more ex-pros put their hands up saying they want to join you at Pitso Mosimane Soccer Schools?
Pitso Mosimane: No, but sometimes you must understand “Spanner”, Tlou, he’s running his own academy in Polokwane. He’s got his people who are doing the programme. He’s also at PMSS, why not? Let the guy work and also let him get what we do in PMSS, and he can implement it in his academy because I can guarantee they don’t have the book that we have because he’s still learning from us. I mean, that’s a fact. So, let him learn and let him go implement with the people. And it’s not about money. It’s about knowledge. It’s about education. It’s not about money, so I don’t know what former players want. Okay, we are at the schools, and we don’t have a R5 million grant to be paying you the money that you wanted, that you were playing for. No, we don’t do that. We are at schools, otherwise what should we tell the children at the school? Must they pay R5 000 per training session? That’s not the market for us. We need to talk about realities. If you want to come and work at PMSS and you are looking for big pay-outs, no, you are in the wrong space. But if you say, “Oh, I’m a football coach and I want to do that, I think maybe one day I’m going to be the head coach of a DDC (DStv Diski Challenge) team, I’ll take this step like this and like this as we go. So, we come up like this and then one day, I want to be the head coach of Polokwane City.” Why not? So, it’s a platform for him to use and to take rather than sitting at home. He’s sitting at home, what is he doing? You know what’s going to happen when you are sitting at home, you know the stories.
