Mamelodi Sundowns caused a stir this week when they fired Manqoba Mngqithi and replaced him with former Esperance coach Miguel Cardoso.
Despite sitting at the top of the Betway Premiership with eight wins from their nine games, Sundowns decided to part ways with Mngqithi after a slow start to the CAF Champions League, and failure to win the MTN8 and Carling Knockout Cup.
Cardoso, the man tasked with getting Sundowns’ continental campaign up and running, has had limited success throughout his journeyman career that’s seen him take charge of clubs in Spain, Portugal, Greece, France, and Tunisia.
In seven years, he has one league title to his name, but it was his elimination of the Brazilians in last season’s Champions League semi-finals with Esperance that brought him to the club’s attention. He was, however, fired by the Tunisian giants just two months ago.
“Coach Miguel’s CV is one that I think it’s better spoken than read,’ club chairman Thlopie Motsepe said this week.
“If you had the chance to speak to the coach about his experiences in Rio Ave, in France, when he was at Shakhtar Donestsk, you understand how much he learned and developed, the challenges and improvements he made to those teams,” the chairman and CAF president Patrice Motsepe, said.
“And with all due respect to all the teams he coached, he didn’t necessarily have all the tools he would have hoped to have. We see ourselves as an opportunity of a club he can achieve greater success with.
“The one title, nobody wants to speak about other coaches. When Jurgen Klopp arrived at Liverpool, he didn’t have the most decorated CV, but now he leaves the club as a legend. All masters and legends start somewhere. We hope this is the club where he starts to write his legend.”
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