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Mamelodi Sundowns defender Anele Ngcongca has voiced his support for boss Pitso Mosimane, insisting that the best coaches in the world are a bit arrogant.
Mosimane has come in for some criticism on occasion as some accused him of being arrogant, but Ngcongca has defended his coach and praised him for being a top-notch man manager.
The 32-year-old right-back spent nine years at Belgian outfit KRC Genk before signing for Masandawana in 2016, and he reckons Mosimane is cut from the same cloth as coach Franky Vercauteren.
"To be honest I will compare him with one of my best coaches I've worked under in Belgium," Ngcongca said, as quoted by Sowetan Live.
"If you know the yesteryear of Belgian football he used to play against Pele and Maradona [for Belgium] - Franky Vercauteren. Working with coach Pitso I get that same feeling as working with Vercauteren.
"As much as he [Mosimane] is hard working he's always got a door open for any player to come and speak to him. It's not about only football, it's about life in general.
"I had the privilege to work with coach Pitso for Bafana Bafana too. He's the coach who, if he sees you are struggling, is the first one to call you over and say the things you want to hear as a player.
"Some people see it differently because they don't work closely with him. I hear people talking about arrogance - but I mean, which coach is not arrogant?
"Would Jose Mourinho, Pep Guardiola or Juergen Klopp be where they are today if they weren't arrogant? So I think people miss something there about coach Pitso.
"He's one of the coaches who I'd say has played a part in my career. I remember he and [then-Bafana] coach Carlos Alberto Parreira [who Mosimane assisted] came to watch my first game in Belgium, and games where I was playing centreback against Romelu Lukaku [then playing for Anderlecht].
"Those are the things the coach always mentions - when I was playing Champions League against Fernando Torres.
"Those are the things I appreciate about having coach Pitso. If I get into coaching, those are the things I will copy.
"He eats football, he lives football. To have someone like that makes a player's job very easy."
- TEAMtalk media
