Pitso Mosimane recently took a break from his title charge in the Saudi First Division League with Al-Ahli Saudi to make his way to the land of his birth, not that he was missing the pap, boerewors and sunshine but to be officially unveiled as the Nedbank Cup 2023 ambassador. Of course, the decorated coach is no stranger to this cup competition, having won it twice, first in the 2014/15 season and then in 2019/20 whilst in charge of Mamelodi Sundowns. His ambassadorship is an unsurprising surprise, so to speak, seeing the Kagiso-born mentor has been there, done that and seen it all in local, continental and international football. During the event, in which Soccer Laduma was one of the media attendees, Nedbank explained the reasoning behind the choice, while some of the players who have played under Mosimane's guidance, such as Teko Modise and Daine Klate, could not stop lavishing praise on the 58-year-old mentor for his influence on their careers and wise counsel on matters financial.
Why Pitso? Nedbank explain…
What Irvin Khoza said
Khensani Nobanda – Nedbank Group Executive for Marketing and Corporate Affairs
"Why did we choose coach Pitso? The one thing, for me, is excellence. What coach Pitso represents in a lot of ways is excellence, having won not just the Nedbank Cup but having won on the continent and, for me, South African excellence is where you go and do the same sort of achievement outside your own country. So, for me, that's the first thing he represents – excellence. The second thing is the financial conversation. To hear players like Teko speaking about just how he has helped them. We found out about four months ago that a few players actually said coach Pitso would give them all this advice about money and all of that, and we realised that actually, the focus that we have as a bank in terms of how do you use your money, how do you manage it better, these have always been there. So, he's always been an ambassador in doing that. I think the last reason for me is about giving people their flowers. This was an interesting conversation. Obviously when a brand chooses you to be their brand ambassador, they are saying something to you as well. They are saying you've done really well and you've represented us. When I called the (PSL) chairman, Irvin Khoza, to tell him that we were thinking of using coach Pitso as our brand ambassador, he said, 'Great idea. It is so nice to give people their flowers because we end up doing it when it's too late and they don't know.' So, we actually wanted to say to coach Pitso, as a brand we recognise the work that you've done and the success that you have achieved. What I want to say as my last point is, in our conversations with coach Pitso and his team, what stood out was his focus and commitment to South African society. Part of what we are going to be doing with him… As you know, the winner of the Nedbank Cup is allowed to build a multipurpose sports court in a school of their choice. Those courts are worth about R2 million, where kids can play football, volleyball, netball, and they are really great in terms of development of young kids, and they generally get put up in schools that don't have the resources that some other schools have. So, we will be partnering with the coach to be able to put two of those multi-purpose sports courts. When you work with someone who then thinks about not just themselves around their own success but also then says, 'How can we make an impact together in South Africa?', that's why we chose him."
Jingles' Former Charges On Financial Choices
I feel that is wrong
Daine Klate – Former SuperSport United winger
"When I was 20 years old, I bought my first townhouse and coach Pitso wanted to know where (it was situated) in the complex. We got that kind of guidance from a young age. I feel like life skills are important and I hear a lot of footballers say that they have not been taught life skills. I think life skills is being in school and being in class, being given a project and homework and actually doing it. So, you find (that) the ones that say they weren't taught life skills before becoming footballers are perhaps the ones that when we really look back, they didn't really do well in school. They were sitting behind the class instead of inside the class, so I think life skills comes from school. If you are given a task and you are able to do it, that's probably part of life skills for me. That's how I grew up. I don't think there's enough emphasis on it. I think there's still interventions, which comes from grassroots. I think there's a lack of knowledge being shared at grassroots. I think we are fortunate to have had a mentor and not only a coach, like coach Pitso, from a very young age. When I came to SuperSport (United), coach Pitso had his own problems, he had to manage 35 players and some of those players would go to the left when they had to go to the right. There's not enough emphasis, I would say, on the development side of things. I was fortunate enough to have come from the School of Excellence, where I had development coaches like the late Mandla Mazibuko and Sam Mbatha, who is at Mamelodi Sundowns now. Those coaches, before sessions, would impart knowledge and if you've listened and grasped it, then it would have worked. An example, not to mention any names, but players from the School went on to Sundowns and different teams, and the common denominator with them is that they are the same players who probably didn't listen when they were supposed to and when they went into that environment, they wouldn't know how to behave and they would blame it on a lack of life skills. I feel that is wrong. I feel there was an opportunity for them to learn at a younger age and maybe things would be different for the players who fell by the wayside."
I Remember Losing All My Money
Teko Modise – Former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder
"The change that I did was to start respecting money because where I come from, I was not taught how to use money and besides, we grew up in a society where people did not have money, so it was difficult for them to teach you about something they don't have. So, once you start making money, I was the guy that made the most mistakes. I had three cars at some stage for no reason. I started making excuses for why I had three cars, saying one was for during the week, one for weekends and one for family, and coach Pitso used to fight me a lot about it. I remember him calling me into the office to tell me about money and you know when coach Pitso is angry, you don't wanna be in the same room as him. He started telling me about the importance of money and that a football career is very short and that I need to take my money very seriously. I think, for me, the biggest change was just to listen. From then, I started taking my money seriously and I started making better decisions because of allowing myself to listen to people that have actually walked the path. For me to understand money is because of all the mistakes I've made. There was social pressure that came with playing for certain clubs. You are expected to drive a certain car and live in a certain area, and you decide to live beyond your means, and that is the trap that (a) majority of footballers fall into. In 2010, people think I made a lot of money, but I made a lot of mistakes because everything came at once and nobody teaches you how to use money until you actually lose it. I remember losing all my money and I had to start from scratch. That was a blessing in disguise for me because even until today, I respect money and I know that I need to buy things that I need."
The Coach Speaks!
Pitso Mosimane – Nedbank Cup 2023 ambassador
"I'm humbled, first, by the ambassadors and what they were speaking about. I think we have the true ambassadors who have been around the football space and also who have done very well with their finances because I have coached Teko, Shabba (Siphiwe Tshabalala), Daine. I only haven't coached 'Stiga' (Stanton Fredericks). I spotted them and signed them myself, and when I see where they are now, for me that's more important than winning trophies. As I always say, it's more important to support and build people. In football, you first coach the human being before you coach the footballer and they've done very well. Some of the stories they have shared remind me of the days when I was fighting with them about how to look after their finances. I remember fighting Daine Klate to say, 'You are not going to sleep in the car, you have to buy the house first.' I was proud of Teko also when he went back to his home in Soweto, and I spoke to him and said, 'That's a very good thing. You need to fix your parents' home first before your own.' He did that and I am proud of them. We can talk about them playing football, but I know them differently outside football and those are really lifechanging stories, and they give me good memories of their time."
