Zimasa FC under-16 coach Nzulu “Mourinho” Sangqu, right, was named Khayelitsha LFA’s coach of the year for last season. He is pictured here with his club’s manager Mziyanda Pawuli, who is also the youth convenor of the LFA.
Zimasa FC under-16 coach Nzulu “Mourinho” Sangqu’s hard work in the 2021 season didn’t go unnoticed, as he was voted coach of the year at the recently-held Khayelitsha LFA awards.
Sangqu, 26, led his young charges to the league title, following a dramatic late-season surge, which saw them clawing their way to the top, after being 10 points behind then log leaders TTACC. They ended up winning the championship on the last day of the season, late last month.
Speaking to Vukani after the awards ceremony at the end of last season in December, Sangqu described his players as a special bunch of dedicated and disciplined soldiers.
“They have dreams of becoming professional players one day. What stands out about them is the style of play that we are using: as much as I can be hard on them sometimes but they know that it's because I'm aware they can do more,” he said.
“It would be unfair if I don’t mention our participation in the regional tournament (Denis Goldberg cup). That was actually the turning point, in terms of our fortunes this season because, when we came up against Young Bafana in the last 16, and ended up winning, that's where we started to believe that we can go all the way to the finals,” he said.
And, they did indeed go all the way to the final, before losing on penalties against Mandalay’s Ulana Academy. Sangqu also noted that they were aware that, coming from that regional tournament, things were going to be even tougher in the league, as they had to play catch up most of the time.
“We knew every team that we were going to play against will be tough opponents because they will want to prove a point against us but we managed to collect as many points as we wanted, which was enough to see us to clinch the under-16 Khayelitsha LFA league title, thanks to our friends Goal Hunters FC for holding the log leaders on the last day of the league,” he said.
So, who is Nzulu Sangqu?
“My nickname is Mourinho, and that’s because my idol coach from Europe is José Mourinho and I was born in Eastern Cape, eDutywa. I fell in love with football at a very young age and had a dream of becoming a professional footballer one-day, but since that didn’t happen, I started to fall in love with coaching in 2014. I started out at Cape Town Liverpool FC. I looked up to people like Morris Bacaza, Anella Bota and many others. The way they loved their clubs and their passion for the game inspired me. I wanted to be like them,” he said.
Sangqu, always looking for opportunities to improve his knowledge of the game, decided to do a Safa-Cape Town D licence coaching course. He said he was interested to continue but financial problems stood in his way.
“To do a C licence, for instance, costs R5 000 which is highly impossible for an unemployed volunteer coach like me to get that kind of money.”
He was also quick to note that, for him, there is nothing really stressful about coaching, especially at junior level. This, he said, was because a coach’s priority should be to develop his players.
“Our duty is to make them better players, be more than a coach to them so that they can remember you. Passion should be the driving force for you to be a good coach and you need time because it starts at training and it takes time to instil your philosophy in the players. It is so special to coach youngsters because you need to level with them because, when they see a brother in you, they won’t be scared of you, so they need to feel safe around you and be willing to engage with you”.