Coach Rulani Mokwena has tough task of reawakening ‘sleeping giant’ Wydad Casablanca

Wydad supporters cheer ahead of the CAF Champions League final against Al Ahly at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, on 30 May 2022. Photo: Jalal Morchidi/EPA-EFE

By Yanga Sibembe

21 Jul 2024

The Moroccans have hired the former Mamelodi Sundowns coach to turn their fortunes around. For Mokwena it is a clean canvas on which to paint his legacy.

Rulani Mokwena is about to embark on the toughest journey yet in his extensive coaching career.

Mokwena, who carries stacks of experience in the dugout despite being only 37, has joined Moroccan club Wydad Casablanca after his Mamelodi Sundowns exit just over a week ago.

The African soccer heavyweights confirmed this partnership on 11 July, officially naming Mokwena as the man the club hopes can reignite their faded aura as an African giant.

Tough task

During the 2023/24 season, Wydad finished a lowly fifth place in Morocco’s top flight – the Botola Pro League. For many teams, this would not be a crisis-inducing placing, but for Wydad it was.

It is the team’s lowest league finish in a decade. In 2013/14 they placed sixth. Since then, they have either won the league (five times) or finished as runners-up.

The team’s placing also means it will not be taking part in any Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions. This includes the CAF Champions League, which they have lifted thrice, most recently in 2022, as well as the auxiliary CAF Confederation Cup, which they won in 2002.

This absence from continental soccer can be a good or a bad thing for Mokwena. On the positive side, it will relieve him of the pressure of competing on all fronts in his first season working on foreign soil.

He and his technical team can focus solely on re-establishing Wydad as a force domestically. This, of course will have a knock-on effect in that a season that improves on the previous one for the club will bring with it CAF competition qualification.

On the negative side, Mokwena will be under pressure to make a massive difference immediately because of the team’s sole focus on their domestic onslaught. Anything below second spot is likely to place him under the microscope.

The club’s hierarchy is undoubtedly dreaming of a record-extending 23rd Botola title for Morocco’s most successful soccer club. Winning it may be a mandate for Mokwena, but it will not be simple.

Defending champions heading into the 2024/25 season and Wydad’s bitter rivals Raja Casablanca won the league undefeated last season. They won 21 and drew nine of their 30 matches in the domestic marathon, coached by former Orlando Pirates mentor Josef Zinnbauer.

They will not relinquish their league title easily, even to Mokwena, whose Sundowns side came just one game short of achieving a similarly undefeated DStv Premiership campaign. They lost their last game of the season to Cape Town City.

“We’re going to have to put in a lot of work, a lot of hands on deck, and push ourselves more. But at the same time, we are excited about the new direction we are taking,” said Mokwena at the 11 July press conference.

Hit the ground running

As he pieces together his technical team and assesses the players available to him, Mokwena has his eyes on one thing only – to reawaken the slumbering giant.

“We are working, trying to sort out the squad and the training facilities. There is a lot of work to be done here,” Mokwena told Thabiso Mosia on Radio 2000.

“It’s a very big club; only a few months ago they were lifting the Champions League. So, it’s a sleeping giant. Fortunately, the giant has not been sleeping for too long.”

The Red Castle, as the club is known, has handed Mokwena a three-year contract and if his first season is anything like his overall Sundowns record, where he was in charge of 91 matches and won 60 (and drew 20 and lost nine), then he will have a strong foundation to build on.

Read more: Mamelodi Sundowns confirm coach Rulani Mokwena’s departure despite DStv Premiership success

“I’ve done quite a lot of research; I’ve spoken to quite a lot of people,” Mokwena said.

“Some people said to me, ‘Don’t go to Wydad. There are lots of problems’. But I spoke to the board, I spoke to the chairman, the president, and I spoke to my agent. And I know all the mitigating factors that the club faced last season.”

Nevertheless, he is up for the challenge and rejected a number of other African clubs where the pressure might not have been so high because they are in a relatively stable position compared with Wydad.

Wydad Wydad supporters at the CAF Champions League final against Al Ahly, played at the Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca, Morocco, on 30 May 2022. (Photo: Jalal Morchidi / EPA-EFE)

The fact that Wydad is one of the four African teams set to compete in the rejigged Fifa Club World Cup in mid-2025 would have been another reason he chose Morocco as his next destination.

If he succeeds in turning around the Casablanca club’s fortunes next season, Mokwena will silence his critics. Many times, he was said to have it easy at Sundowns.

It was said that whatever success he enjoyed with the Brazilians after being Pitso Mosimane’s assistant – his being co-coach alongside Manqoba Mngqithi and Steve Komphela – was because of the foundation Mosimane had laid before leaving the club.

Read more: Rulani Mokwena and José Riveiro have shown quality as PSL standout coaches in recent seasons

That Sundowns was unbeaten in the league for more than 50 matches between 2022 and 2024 was not enough to convince his detractors. Neither were the two league titles, Nedbank Cup or African Football League triumphs that he spearheaded during his tenure.

His success was credited to Mosimane’s lasting legacy at Masandawana, as well as their financial muscle compared with other Premiership sides.

In the past, critics have also pointed to his brief, ill-fated spell as Pirates mentor during the 2019/20 campaign – which resulted in his not finishing the season with the club after some roller coaster displays, but instead being loaned to Chippa United.

By moving up north, he is again following in the footsteps of Mosimane. Mosimane, who is one of Mokwena’s mentors, broke new ground when he joined Egyptian heavyweights Al Ahly in 2020.

At Wydad, Mokwena has an opportunity to write his own story while reinvigorating the teetering giant. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.

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Tough task

Hit the ground running