Rulani Mokwena says Pyramids’ perfect start earned him Egypt Coach of the Month award

Rulani Mokwena says his Coach of the Month award in the Egyptian Premier League is recognition of how quickly the Pyramids squad has adapted to his football philosophy.

The South African coach received the first individual award of the campaign after guiding the former league champions to four wins from four matches. Pyramids have collected 12 points, scored seven goals and conceded none.

Mokwena told SABC Sport that the achievement had exceeded expectations, particularly given the speed with which the team had made an impact under his leadership.

“Yes, of course it’s a worthy achievement, I think maybe it has even surpassed our expectations. The similar start we had in Algeria which was the best start in Algerian football in history and now we have achieved a similar start in Egypt with Pyramids, which is Pyramids’ best start to the season in its history,” he said.

The award follows a similar beginning Mokwena experienced in Algeria, where his team recorded what he described as the best start in the history of Algerian football.

Despite accepting the personal recognition, Mokwena stressed that he does not view individual coaching awards as a true reflection of what happens on the pitch.

“So, we are really proud of this as a technical team and of course I always say this, I’m not really a big fan of these individual awards and these coach of the month awards because no coach has ever scored a goal, no coach has ever kept a clean sheet and no coach has ever made an assist.”

He said the honour should be shared with the wider coaching staff, whose work in preparing the squad has contributed to Pyramids’ unbeaten opening.

“We work together as a team of coaches and I’ve got an incredible staff with me. You know coach Wendell [Robinson], coach Themba [Sinethemba Badela], we have coach Gedo [Mohamed Nagi]who’s an Egyptian legend and one that is helping us a lot behind the scenes about the players and about the league,” Mokwena added.

Mokwena also highlighted the contribution of Said [el-Nahas], who works as an analyst and effectively operates as an assistant coach.

“We have Said [el-Nahas]who’s an analyst, more of an assistant coach. We are in that space where we have a very strong technical team and now technical teams are the one that works behind the scenes to help to prepare the team.

“We have a very good physical team with coach Ramdan [Mohammed]who was with me in Morocco and Wydad and we have coach Foued [Cherait].”