Mamelodi Sundowns Head Coach, Rulani Mokwena has been merited with the DStv Premiership Coach of the Season award at the PSL 2023 end of the season awards after successfully winning the sixth consecutive domestic league title.
The award comes after Masnadawana’s busy and eventful 2022/23 season where they participated in four different competitions, including the CAF Champions League. Coach Mokwena has also won the Coach of the Month awards back-to-back for December/January and February/March.
Coach Rulani expressed his gratitude for the award and credited all parties involved in the success of the club. “Congratulations to the football club because this is an award that you receive as a custodian and a person that represents the team from a leadership perspective. But it’s not possible without the commitment and hard work from everyone that is involved, so it’s a team award because it was from collective efforts.
Emphasizing how the award is a result of a joint effort from everyone at Mamelodi Sundowns, the Brazilians Coach mentioned that without the players, as coaches they aren’t that important. He stated that this is because they [coaches] are only there because their jobs are to improve the players and give them comfort, structure, and information that allows them to perform at their best.
Masandawana made a clean sweep at the 2023 PSL awards with the most wins and bagged seven accolades in total. Coach Mokwena commented on the domination of the players and said, “Congratulations to Ronwen Williams, Teboho Mokoena, Cassius Mailula, Khuliso Mudau, and Peter Shalulile, the awards are well deserved. We are fortunate that we have an incredible, special, and hard-working group of players that commit themselves and are very honest to give more and try new things.”
With a lot of individual accomplishments, the league-winning Coach said that it’s important to celebrate as a collective with everyone that works behind the scenes at the club to assist the club and the team. He further thanked the technical team and the players for their dedication throughout the season.
DStv Premiership Coach of the Season relayed that the award recipients have good stories and achievements that the entire club is very proud of. Coach Rulani added that the players will now be working on getting better than the level they’re currently at, which will be difficult but it’s necessary to move forward and improve.
Very much disappointed with our team’s management and technical team,they don’t have a vision.You just can’t release a young Domingo and want to sign an old Mendieta,we should have learned from signing the likes of Ralani,that Argentinean from Amazulu,Brookie the list is endless some players are good for small teams.Mendieta is old and he is going to need time to adapt to our style of play and by then he will be 35.Our team is stable we don’t need quick fix,we only lost champions league because of Rulani stubbornness when it comes to Mvala,we need to sign players who can be with us for a long time,can play for their national teams and those that we can sell abroad.Truth be told when it comes to building the team for the future we are terrible,we just spend money for the sake of it.We have our own good young players,we should just give them the chance while the team is still doing well rather than wasting money on old players.Players like Kapinga and Domingo they could better than Mendieta if given a far chance.
Congratulations my on being the coach of the year. I listened and read with dismay that some people are saying you don’t deserve the accolade ,from other sports outlets. The question is who deserve it?They even say Rulani came in the middle of the season, the question where did Rulani came from because all the year &that he has been at Sundowns since Pitso’s departure. So for people to insinuate that u bought some coaches to vote for you baffles me,naming Riveiro as the deserving one but convert the same glory into monetary value gives you the the same amount of 15 million Rand,in reference to Riveiro who won 2 trophies,that equals one league championship.You deserve the accolade and this time around it belongs to you.That Chippa United striker and Grant Margerman must return back to Sundowns fc.SIYABANGENA EVEN THIS SEASON…