'Africa's Pep' Pitso Mosimane told to 'forget about Europe' amid FIFA awards snub

CNN once branded South Africa's premier coach Pitso Mosimane as "Africa's Pep Guardiola" following his astounding exploits with, firstly, Mamelodi Sundowns, and more recently with Egyptian giants Al Ahly.

To be compared with a serial-winning, game-defining genius such as the Manchester City boss must have been one of the biggest honours heralded upon Mosimane.

However, all the lavish praise in the world and all the trophies he's won on the continent - there've been many - have not been enough to earn him a seat at the top coaches' table, where Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel (Chelsea), Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool), Roberto Mancini (Italy) and such European luminaries reside.

The New York Times even questioned why Mosimane was overlooked for a nomination for a FIFA Coach-of-the-Year award despite winning the Egyptian league, CAF Champions League (twice) and the CAF Super Cup.

"Sometimes it's not about the European coach," said Mosimane about whether the FIFA snub was because he was African.

"If you look at Benfica coach Jorge Jesus, who coached (Brazilian club) Flamengo, he was one coach who came closer to me in terms of what he has won.

"He won many leagues in Brazil and back-to-back league titles and all that. He's from Portugal, but he was also not acknowledged or nominated.

"So, it's not about where you're coming from but where you're coaching. We can never say the CAF Champions League is of the same standard as the Uefa Champions League. Of course, it's not.

"The question is, what is the criteria? Is it which league spends more money or is bigger? Then it's OK. We should rather not be nominated for that - they must be for Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Man City, the big boys who spend so much money.

"We should be in our own categories. You