Johnson plays down Al Ahly coach Mosimane's impact on African giants

Former Al Ahly assistant coach Cavin Johnson has said Pitso Mosimane is part of the African champions’ success and is not the team’s success itself.

Mosimane has enjoyed a trophy-laden spell at the Cairo giants since his arrival at the club in October 2020.

He is now on the verge of winning a third-straight Caf Champions League title as Al Ahly are due to meet Wydad Casablanca in the final.

Johnson has compared Al Ahly's generations and shares his comments about Mosimane’s involvement with the current crop.

“They have a very strong generation of players there, that’s the good thing about Ahly,” Johnson told Far Post.

“The success of this team has been because of the great recruitment system. The new generation players are able to maintain and elevate the standard of the previous generation. The [Mohamed] Aboutrika generation set high standards and won trophies.

“They also dominated domestic and continental competitions. The [Mohamed] El Shenawy generation has maintained the same standard under the mentorship of coach Pitso Mosimane.

“[Pitso’s excellence as a coach] It touches on it, but when you understand the kind of conglomerate that Al Ahly is, and just like I said everybody is involved. He’s part of the success and he’s not the success. I’m not saying this in any form of disrespect.”

Johnson worked under Mosimane between October 2020 and September 2021.

His departure was unceremonious and he is yet to find a job since then.

The final is set to be played in Casablanca for the second season running and Al Ahly have reacted negatively to Caf’s choice of the venue.

“Al Ahly SC asserts the strong and historic relations between the club and the Moroccan clubs and football fans in Morocco, who are not involved in the dispute between Al Ahly and Caf,” Al Ahly said in a statement.

“The club is currently in dispute with Caf as their decision over the venue of the Caf Champions League final was unfair, and goes against all the Fifa regulations and the Olympic Charter. Also, the decision was announced at a late stage of the competition.

“The club will play the Caf Champions League final no matter where the game is held, guided by the club's values and traditions. We did not receive any statements confirming the details of the game.

“Al Ahly adheres to its legitimate demands and will request specific regulations to ensure justice between the two competing teams in the final, which will be the headline of the biggest competition in Africa.

“The club decided to take the dispute to CAS and escalate the situation after all the negative matters in organizing CAF competitions, which do not have specific regulations for a long time.

“The club demands CAS to determine the case before the date of the final. The club wants the game to be held in a neutral venue or to be postponed until determining the situation by CAS, to provide equal opportunities for the two competing teams.”