Pitso Mosimane's approach to life is anchored in a can-do attitude, fuelled by a fire of passion.
That fire has been the furnace that has seen the former Bafana Bafana coach smelt records in the construction of the Mosimane phenomenon.
In two decades of coaching at club level, the father of three has blazed a terrific trail of firsts. Friend and foe agree that he is, as Irvin Khoza once described him, the best of the best.
First South African to win the Confederation of African Football Champions League and Caf Super Cup. First South African coach to win five league titles in the elite division. First coach to deliver 13 trophies in eight years.
In the biggest story of South African soccer, Mosimane has resigned from Mamelodi Sundowns, for whom he won a Telkom Knockout, Absa Premiership and Nedbank Cup treble in the recent season.
His destination? The land of the Sphinx, pyramids and mummies where Al Ahly, the African club of the century and serial continental club competition capturers, are his new employers.
The son of a general-dealer father, born in Kagiso 56 years ago, signed a two-year contract, making him the first coach from Southern Africa to achieve the feat.
"Any contract is not the number of years. It is about how well you do," Mosimane told ShootOnline. "At SuperSport United I was interim coach. After that I was given a one-year contract. After that I was given two, after that it became three. It is not a number of years. It is your contribution to the team. People have been given five years and have not done anything."
If Jose Mourinho is the Special One and Jurgen Klopp the Normal One, the Yellow Nation of Mamelodi called their man simply the Only One.
Because the man who stays up until the wee hours to watch his favourite sport, basketball, is the only one who rewarded billionaire club boss Patrice Motsepe with a truckload of trophies, succeeding where men such as Henri Michel and Barcelona legends Hristo Stoichkov and Johan Neeskens failed.
Learning and suckling from the oasis of knowledge of those before him, he throws himself like a sponge to water
Such has been his impact on the domestic game that he also befits the description of the Outspoken One. This is because he doesn't mince his words when he speaks his mind and he elevated Downs to a one-team dynasty.
That dominance by the nephew of Mainline and Tikkie Khoza, who played for Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs respectively, relegated the Soweto giants to dust eaters who have kept social distancing with silverware for a combined 11 years.
Sundowns supporters saluted him with a mural on the wall of his father's shop, toasting his 2016 Caf success. The mural was updated with the latest trio of trophies.
If this is the pinnacle, his penchant for pushing himself has heeded a call for a new challenge.
Why not? Mosimane's legend has outgrown the Premier Soccer League (PSL). It is one that has led to the obsessive attention-to-detail-minding character, revered in Lusaka, Soshanguve and Atteridgeville, being accorded the same reverence in Cairo, Casablanca and Tunis.
Friends - he keeps very few - speak of how his determination to succeed can be seen when he plays soccer with his youngest son on the soccer pitch in his yard.
Colleagues confess to his competitive streak when members of the technical team engage in a six-a-side match. Coach Pitso is no slouch. Neither is he a couch potato.
A lot of people don't know his incredible sense of humour. His comic side; he is a good person to be around. He has moments where he will switch off and completely forget about football,
— Rulani Mokwena
They testify about a man who puts up different faces: an abrasive defender of the team, a joker in the pack, an outstanding family man.
Most of the time he comes to work "and he needs coffee because he sleeps only three hours at the most because he is a crazy, extremely obsessed with detail and [an] amazing student of the game trying to find weaknesses on the opponents," says Rulani Mokwena, an assistant at Sundowns.
The pitch is Mosimane's natural habitat. Off it he is "very calm, extremely diffident, extremely humorous".
"A lot of people don't know his incredible sense of humour. His comic side; he is a good person to be around. He has moments where he will switch off and completely forget about football," says Mokwena.
When lounging at home, he hogs the remote while watching documentaries. But he would have his iPad on hand to watch soccer matches loaded on it.
Exporting coaches is one area in which South African soccer has not excelled. If we say our coaches are good enough, argued Danny Jordaan when campaigning for the South African Football Association (Safa) presidency, why are they not coaching elsewhere?
Spanish and German coaches are everywhere.
Trott Moloto coached Simba SC in Tanzania. Mlungisi Ngubane coached Namibia. Thabo Senong is in charge of the Lesotho national team. Chalk and cheese compared with Mosimane's appointment.
"You need to come out of your comfort zone, you know," says Mosimane, "and also saying to yourself, look, you need also to show our local coaches that it is possible that one of us can go to coaching in the big league in the continent."
The football fanaticism in North Africa in general and Egypt in particular makes that part of the world a topsy-turvy environment for coaches. Dismissals happen at the drop of a hat. But to be a flop is the furthest thing from Mosimane's mind.
Learning and suckling from the oasis of knowledge of those before him, he throws himself like a sponge to water. From suckling from Ted Dumitru in his novice years to learning from Carlos Alberto Parreira in his formative years at Bafana Bafana.
"I've worked with Parreira also. The coach who won two World Cups. Putting a plan and saying we should do this and that. I was one of the people who were analysing the opponents and present to him and the game comes out like that. Then you say no, but it means the way I analyse things I'm not off the mark."
He wanted to prove a point after Bafana Bafana. It was vividly visible that he had matured as a coach.
Damn, the man even had the temerity to bench fan favourite Teko Modise.
The Bafana Bafana experience sharpened his skills. He learnt a great deal from the Brazilian, including his penchant for a cup of coffee. A small table in the dressing room and even pitch-side at training is an unmistakable sight.
Taking over from Parreira was a natural progression. Safa had invested a lot in Mosimane.
But that is the one phase of his growth where mistakes were made. Of course, we didn't qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, the misunderstanding of the rules our undoing. Few will forget the dance of shame in Mbombela when Bafana players celebrated a qualification that never was. There is no denying that something was cooking.
We didn't qualify for tournaments. But the real limitation was the kind of players at his disposal.
Game-changer. That is Mosimane. Evident over the years was the evolution of Sundowns as a team that used to be about their overpaid players, to the coach becoming the superstar. He also made superstars of CBD, the triumvirate of Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat and Keagan Dolly.
The Bongani Zungus of Chloorkop found fertile ground in the French Ligue 1. When Percy Tau was signed by Brighton & Hove Albion in the English Premier League, the player left for foreign fields having garnered the PSL Footballer, Player's Player and joint top goalscorer of the 2017/2018 season.
Sheer hard work and determination drives Mosimane. He is no staff rider.
An avid reader, he never tires of improving himself intellectually. He constantly studies modern trends. As he pulled off his third league title on the trot, pulling the rug from under the feet of Chiefs in the final 30 minutes of the last day, Mosimane was doing his Caf pro licence online.
It is something South African players of his generation should embrace. Too many are rent-a-quote merchants, always at the ready to fire a broadside, relying on their reputation as former star players.
One is tempted to say that even in his wildest dreams he would not have figured his career taking such a trajectory. But Mosimane has dreamt big from when he cut his teeth in coaching, commencing as a caretaker coach at SuperSport.
His personality defines him. Divisive, some say, is the nature of his person. A polarising figure, others argue. Even as, on the day of their crowning, he spoke of figures inside the club clamouring to see him fail.
He has an acerbic tongue. It riles up detractors. For a period of two years he made it his mission to slam referee Victor Gomez. A mad cap he can be. In a heated moment of madness, a younger Mosimane allowed the rush of blood to the head in an altercation with then Sundowns coach Angel Cappa which saw fists flying.
Among the football fraternity in this country, everyone recognises his undoubted talent.
One of the unusual things about Pitso Mosimane is that he has in his wife, Moira, an ardent companion, running his life at home and in the boardroom.
The man knows the power of his brand. He controls everything about it.
He is adored by fans on the African continent. That adulation was brought to the fore in Morocco last December.
Standing on the pitch at full-time, surrounded by a sea of red shirts on the stand, the capacity crowd at the Stade Mohamed V cauldron rose to their feet to salute Mosimane with an ovation. Sundowns had just beaten Wydad Casablanca to reach the play-offs of the Caf Champions League.
The man knows the power of his brand. He controls everything about it
Blazing uncharted terrain brings with it uncertainty. Risk, what risk? Cowards die many times before their actual deaths.
"I mean this is like coaching [Real] Madrid or Barca in Europe. It is like coaching Flamengo or Santos or Boca Juniors in South America. It is as huge as that ... Of course, you know, the risks are big.
"You want to say, I believe that a South African coach can go to that level. If you look at also the record of the team itself then you won't be going because you'd say coaches don't last in that space. But I can say the same thing about Mamelodi Sundowns. The lifespan of a coach at Sundowns was not even more than a year. It was about eight months, nine months, before I came.
"I said to myself, do you want to go to that environment? But look what came out. Almost eight years came out. It is either you [go] there and believe what you believe, and what you think you can change."
When people have accused him of arrogance, I've countered that the man is confident. To kill the argument, I created a new word: confirogance, a combination of confidence and arrogance.
Such is the ilk of go-getters. They are cut from a different cloth.
"It is not that I'm brave. I'm driven by a passion to do things. I look at reality. Ahly was coached by [Martin] Lasarte, a South American. He is a big coach. I could analyse his team. We could play with them. We lost 1-0 away and won 5-0 at home.
"Give me the space. Give me the time. I'll take Al Ahly to the next level."
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