Motsepe Reveals Why Pitso Mosimane’s Mamelodi Sundowns Return Never Happened

Mamelodi Sundowns chairman Thlopie Motsepe has lifted the lid on the decision to retain head coach Miguel Cardoso when Pitso Mosimane was reported to be close to replacing him.

Early this year, Mosimane was said to have held talks and agreed to take over at Sundowns, in what would have been a sensational return, six years since he left the club, after an eight-year stint that yielded several trophies.

At the time, Cardoso was overseeing a dark period in Sundowns’ 2025-26 season with his team playing badly and also not posting positive results consistently.

The Portuguese coach had also lost the confidence of fans, some who openly chanted Mosimane’s name, when the South African giants struggled on the pitch.

However, Cardoso stayed in his position and went on to end the club’s 10-year wait for a CAF Champions League title and last month, he guided Sundowns to the Asia-Africa Pacific Cup after beating Saudi giants Al Ahli.

“The important factor was the feeling I had to say; ‘can we really find somebody in a short space.’,” Motsepe said during an interview with Robert Marawa as per Afrik-Foot. “And he took us to the final of the CAF Champions League, which we hadn’t been at for nine years.”

“Do we let go of somebody who allows our players to express themselves and to play with such bravery at the Club World Cup if we are just going through this period right now?” he posed, explaining the thought process that led to Cardoso keeping his job.

Motsepe says that while Sundowns were not winning consistently, there had been signs that Cardoso was returning the attractive as well as effective football that had been missing previously and feels vindicated that he did not pull the trigger.

“Football is a passion-driven business. We live and die by the passion of the game,” he further stated. “I think we are all in this game because of passion but it is very important sometimes to be able to remove yourself and see the bigger picture.”

“If we had let go of coach Cardoso at the time, who knows if we would have got the Champions League or the Asia-Africa Pacific Cup? What I did believe in at the time was the fact that we saw elements at the Club World Cup that just showed us a shoe shine and piano [attractive football].

“A Mamelodi Sundowns that was touching something that we hadn’t really touched before. Maybe we were not playing openly as we had done the previous seasons but we adapted a little bit in terms of our openness, we strengthened in terms of our robustness and I think that was a beautiful lesson we had to learn,” said Motsepe, who took over the running of the club when his father Patrice became CAF president in 2021.

Cardoso has since firmed up his position with his team now top of the table in the South African league, won the Asia-Africa Pacific Cup, set to play the MTN8 final this weekend and still favourites to win the Champions League while Mosimane is now the Bafana Bafana coach.