Rodger De Sa has pulled the curtain back on what makes Al Ahly such a force in African football.
Former Orlando Pirates head coach Roger De Sa has revealed what makes Al Ahly such a force in African football.
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No other club on the continent has won more CAF Champions League titles than the Red Devils. They have 12 to their name, seven more than the next best clubs, TP Mazembe and Zamalek.
The Club of the Century are once again in the knockout stages of this season’s iteration of the competition, and their head coach, Marcel Koller, will be looking to add to the club’s lore by making more history—winning a third straight continental title, having already secured the last two.
Coaches such as Manuel Jose and Pitso Mosimane have managed the club and won back-to-back Champions League titles, but no team in the tournament’s history has successfully completed a three-peat.
One manager who has firsthand experience of how formidable Ahly are on the continental stage is Roger De Sa. The South African tactician was the last manager to lead Pirates to a Champions League final but was defeated 3-1 on aggregate by Ahly. He claims that the Egyptian giants have always maintained an insane drive to win it.
“When I played them 10 years ago, they were a team with massive pedigree and their team was full of superstars,” the Maputo-born coach told Soccer Laduma.
“(Mohamed) Aboutrika alone was probably the best player in Africa at the time and they had many others, but it was a team that went all out to win the African Cup. I mean, the domestic league for them is just second nature, they win it nine out of ten years.
“For them, it’s all systems go for the Champions League, and they know how to play in it. They have so much pedigree, so much experience in that competition.
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“Don’t forget that CAF (Confederation of African Football) is based in Cairo and was basically run by the North Africans, but I think that power has shifted drastically, and even having a president from down south has played a big part.”
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