Snl24 | BREAKING: Rulani resurfaces at North African giants!

PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA – MAY 20: Mamelodi Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena during the CAF Champions League match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Wydad Athletic Club at Loftus Stadium on May 20, 2023 in Pretoria, South Africa. (Photo by Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images)

Moroccan giants Wydad Athletic Club have confirmed the signing of South African coach Rulani Mokwena as the club’s new head coach.

In what has been one of the most unexpected twists in the African football landscape, Mamelodi Sundowns bizarrely parted ways with Mokwena shortly before the start of the club’s pre-season preparations.

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The four-time league winner was never going to be on the market for long, and Wydad wasted no time in securing his services. 

Mokwena is understood to have penned a two-year deal and will be bring on board his own technical team.

After days of negotiations through his representatives, the 37-year-old landed in Morocco on Thursday to finalise the deal.

Wydad are three-time winners of the CAF Champions League and went as far as the final in the 2022/23 campaign.

They were abysmal last season, failing to progress past the group stage, and will not take part in the next edition as they finished sixth in the Botola Pro League.

The young tactician has his work cut out in trying to turn the fortunes of a massively supported side that has a rich history and winning pedigree on the continent, but will be pleased that he will be in charge of the side when they take part in next year’s FIFA Club World Cup, which his former side Sundowns are also a part of.

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Similarly, Pitso Mosimane, who last week in a radio interview reiterated his stance that Mokwena is a better coach than him, left the Chloorkop-based side in 2020 for North Africa, joining Al Ahly, where he was under scrutiny from the moment he landed. 

A similar fate awaits Mokwena, whose favourite phrase: “uneasy is the head that wears the crown” will be put to the test every waking hour of his new life in Morocco, notorious as a football-mad nation.