In a moment of pure humility and class, Rulani Mokwena deflected all praise for Mamelodi Sundowns’ historic African Football League title victory onto his players.
The Mamelodi Sundowns coach, Mokwena credited the players’ ‘dedication, talent, and teamwork’ for the achievement.
Mokwena’s troops emerged as the inaugural champions of the African Football League on Sunday at a packed Loftus Versfeld Stadium.
The Tshwane giants beat Wydad Casablanca 2-0 in the second leg of the final in Pretoria. It was a compelling display of resilience as Sundowns overturned a 2-1 deficit from the first leg away from home to win the tie 3-2.
Awash with a wave of emotion, Mokwena shed tears of joy as he celebrated Sundowns’ historic African Football League title triumph.
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“Let me first start by congratulation the entire football club, it is not a one-man show, I just have the privilege to account for the results but to get to the final,” Mokwena told the media.
“We needed an incredible performance against Al Ahly in the semi-finals at home and the Yellow Nation was behind us the all way, and today (today), they made an incredible contribution, they sung, they supported the boys throughout the 90 minutes and for that, we are extremely grateful, we thank them for their love and support.
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“And then, we have to thank the technical team, we have a working group, coach Manqoba (Mngqithi), with his incredible experience and a lot of support, coach Wendell (Robinson), coach Michael (Loftman), they have been incredible, coach Kennedy (Mweene) as well. “The group of analysts
that we have, the conditioning department, special mention to the recovery , the kit department, the doctors, the marketing and communication department, the securities, the kitchen staff, ground staff, and the chairman (Thlopie Motsepe), we have an incredible group.”
Mokwena added: “And then the special group of players, I thank God for the opportunity to lead this incredible group pf players, these players have backed me. “Congratulations to this amazing football players, I’m very lucky to be their coach. I want to thank the players for making the club proud and for delivering the trophy.”