‘When I left SA, I said I would love to have a sojourn, a safari in the North African space’

It has been something of a roller-coaster of new clubs and mixed fortunes, while testing himself across the challenging landscape of North African football, since Rulani Mokwena left Mamelodi Sundowns in July 2024.

With a flying start to the 2026-27 Egyptian season with Pyramids FC, indications are he may have finally landed at a club that might just have the right blend of ambition, resources and relative stability in a region where that commodity can be as scarce as water, to match his own.

Mokwena joined Wydad Athletic from Sundowns, but the Moroccan giants were in the midst of a financial meltdown. While he raised them from the previous season’s sixth place in the Botola to the top three, Mokwena had been frozen out before the club clinched third position by May, unable to win over Wydad’s demanding fans.

Next came Algerian giants MC Alger, where Mokwena led Algeria’s Ligue Professionnelle 1 when he left in March, reportedly over some disagreements on recruitment and autonomy and with a lucrative offer from Libya’s Al-Ittihad SC. Alger clinched the league title two months after he left.

In Libya, Ittihad started on form under Mokwena but collapsed in a playoff stage that their Premier League has for the championship, failed to reach the Caf Champions League and also lost in the Libyan Cup final, with the relationship ending after four months.

Mokwena remains a coaching prodigy who, for his age, has already had remarkable trophy success with Sundowns. He also has never failed outright at any of the big North African clubs he’s taken on, in one of the world’s most intense football environments. So he remains sought after.

Pyramids, who have only existed since 2008 and under their present name since 2018, are a young club in Egyptian and African football, but they have had quick success. That includes being Premier League runners-up for the last five seasons in a row and when Democratic Republic of the Congo striker Fiston Mayele led them to the Caf Champions League title in 2024-25, beating Sundowns in the final. With notable financial backing from Emirati investor Salem Al-Shamsi, they have won also three Egyptian Cups.

Mokwena, who works with South African assistants Wendell Robinson and Sinethemba Badela, has had a flying start since signing up for Pyramids in July. He has won all 12 of his matches across competitions. Seven of those leave them top of the Egyptian Premier League, four saw them reach the Champions League group stage and one came in the Egyptian Cup.

Mokwena follows in the footsteps into Egyptian football of his one-time Sundowns mentor, Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane, who coached Al Ahly with success from October 2020 to June 2022. Pyramids’ new boss was asked in a digital session with the South African Football Journalists’ Association what excited him about the club.

“I don’t know if I was excited or convinced more by the recent results of the club,” he said.

“They knew a lot about me because they had followed me for a very long time. And it’s a very good club. When I met some of the people who run the club a few times, the ambition, the objectives they set out for the club, these are things where you get a feeling this is the type of environment you want to be part of.

“You want to be stimulated, you want to grow, you want to challenge yourself in a space with some of the best teams. Even in the Egyptian league, there are two other big clubs [Al Ahly and Zamalek] who are always dominating the space and fighting for trophies.

“And of course when I left South Africa and went to Morocco, I said I would love to have a sojourn, a safari in the North African space. I am still due a sabbatical and tell people a lot that I’m very strong on this but the timing just doesn’t seem to ever be right.

“One of the things I said I would really like to start before I take a sabbatical is I want to work in different leagues, with different players and cultures. I want to learn from different people, improve my ideas on football and challenge them, and see whether or not there are some things that can work in different parts of Africa and maybe other parts of the world.

“So yeah, Pyramids came at the right time. It was also very difficult to leave Libya. Because we were also committed to that project and were enticed [by Ittihad] to leave a team [MC Alger] where we were already league champions 20 matches into the season.

“You might have heard some negative things about Algeria. I have especially heard [former Bafana coach] Hugo Broos talk about his experiences in Algeria and mine were the exact opposite. Incredible league, home stadium [Ali La Pointe Stadium in Algiers], football passion and culture.

“The players. From a tm echnical perspective, the Algerian league is fortunate it has one thing maybe lacking in Egypt, in Morocco, in Libya, which is the Algerian Francophone players who have dual passports and grow up in these academies in France — in St Etienne, Lyon, Lille — their level of technical education is incredible.

“… Egyptian football also has a very strong football culture. It’s not by chance that in the history of African football Egypt dominates not just at international level with the most Afcon titles [seven], but also the most Caf interclub titles. Every year you find an Egyptian team in the semifinals and final of not just the Champions League but the Confederation Cup ― last season Zamalek lost against USM [Alger].

“That tells you about very strong work being done in the league, of course, by the Egyptian FA and that goes right into the youth structures.”

Wydad and Raja are great foes; they are just separated by a streetlamp. The Raja training facility is separated by one road from that of Wydad.

—  Rulani Mokwena

Like most Egyptian clubs, coaches’ tenures can be short-lived at Pyramids — about 20 have come and gone since 2018. Yet that seems to have improved recently with Krunoslav Jurčić, Mokwena’s predecessor who won the Champions League, having lasted almost two-and-a-half years.

Mokwena was asked about the pressures of working there, as he looks ahead to a league Cairo derby against Al Ahly on November 23.

“On the Cairo derby, look, we are excited. I think the level of pressure that comes from that, I would say fortunately I’ve been marinated in pressure.

“The pressure from the Wydad fans is something you would not believe. You have to play the Casablanca derby ― there’s a lot of pressure. Wydad and Raja are great foes; they are just separated by a streetlamp. The Raja training facility is separated by one road from that of Wydad.

“The rivalry, the pressure from the fans, is incredible and expectation from the Wydad fans one of the highest you can experience as a coach. I was in a pressure cooker situation at Orlando Pirates, in a pressure cooker at Mamelodi Sundowns where you almost had to win every game.

“Pyramids is still a young club from a football perspective with regards to the heritage and what it has achieved. But what it has achieved surpasses what some teams have with more years to their name.

“From being formed in 2008 it has already won a Champions League and what is missing is to be [Egyptian Premier] League champions. That’s the pressure you feel is on the shoulders of the players, the staff, management and hierarchy.

“I’m looking forward to the Cairo derby against a good team. We also know we are a good team and that’s the pressure we put on ourselves, to keep pushing ourselves up to the next level.”