ON THE face of it, South African football’s ‘Big Three’ having their pre-season training in Europe tells the story of our game making great progress.
And while a highly-decorated coach who should know better has lauded the fact that all of Mamelodi Sundowns, Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs are pitting themselves against top class opposition, he also wondered if the move will be of tangible benefit.
“It’s a good confidence-booster for the teams to play against those top teams,” says multiple Premiership winner Pitso Mosimane, whose former club Sundowns are preparing for the 2024/25 season out in Austria.
Their challengers for the crown, Pirates, are having a fantastic time in Spain where they are yet to be beaten after three matches, while Chiefs are in Turkiye and will face Saudi outfit Al Shahaniya SC today.
Mosimane believes there are great rewards for the teams in going to Europe for their pre-seasons.
“You are exposing players to playing against people they watch on TV and that will show them that these people are human beings just like them. Also, the players get to experience training on top class facilities and will surely be inspired and want to make the move to those big leagues.
“But more than that, you get to develop relationships with those clubs. You are thus in a position to say to them ‘come check our players out’. There are so many spin-offs.”
As with everything though, there are downsides, and for Mosimane it is the fact that the clubs are going to be competing in a completely different environment.
“I used to do it differently because I had tunnel vision – the (CAF) Champions League. So, if I am aiming for the Champions League, I need to prepare for where the real thing is. Now, where they (Sundowns and Pirates who will represent South Africa in the continent’s premier knockout competition) are preparing – as much as it is good because of those points that I raised – when the Champions League starts, they’ll be faced with a completely different environment. The pitches are not the same; the weather is not the same and all the other things are not the same. So how do you deal with that?”
He looks back and is glad that he used to do his pre-season in Africa.
“I used to go to Zimbabwe, Zambia, Tanzania and Ghana because I was saying to the boys ‘these are the tests you are going to face’. I was getting them ready for what was coming, and I believed that it would help. Of course, sometimes it is good to prepare in very easy, smooth environments but the challenge is that when the real thing comes, it is different. I went to Africa because I needed to prepare so they can then see that they can compete.”
Those experiences were instrumental in turning Sundowns into the continental football-savvy outfit they were under his guidance and resulted in the club’s 2016 Champions League triumph.
He admits though that there is some serious confidence to be gained, for example, by Pirates beating La Liga outfit Sevilla 2-1 as the Buccaneers did.
“Of course, when you beat Sevilla, you are bound to believe you can beat anyone and that’s great for them. But you’ve got to do it in the Champions League, not in a friendly, and in a very different environment.”
Meanwhile Mosimane believes that Sundowns will once again be the team to beat in the domestic championship, in spite of the coaching uncertainty at the club following the departure of Rulani Mokwena for Wydad Casablanca. He foresees Pirates as being capable of running the Brazilians much closer than in the previous campaign and expects Chiefs to be an improved team under new coach Nasreddine Nabi.
And the trio’s European experiences should stand them in good stead locally. But he clearly has doubts as to the impact it will have on their continental assignments.