[ad_1]
Al Ahly coach Pitso Mosimane reacted to a 2-1 victory over archrival Zamalek in the final of the CAF Champions League by tweeting “I had to come to the Nile River to catch the big fish.”
He won the competition once in six attempts with former club Mamelodi Sundowns from South Africa, but it only took him two months to guide Ahly to a record-setting ninth title in the clash between Egypt.
Mosimane joined Ahly in September after Swiss coach Rene Weiler was unable to agree on terms for a one-year contract renewal.
Here, AFP Sport summarizes football news from Africa.
Egypt
Mosimane became the third manager after Oscar Fullone of Argentina and Mahmoud el Gohary of Egypt to lead two clubs to the CAF Champions League title.
Both of Mosimane’s successes came against Zamalek, with Sundowns in 2016 and with Ahly this weekend, as Mohamed ‘Afsha’ Magdy scored a spectacular winner with five minutes remaining behind closed doors in Cairo.
Fullone won back-to-back titles with ASEC Mimosas of Ivory Coast and Raja Casablanca of Morocco in 1998 and 1999 and El Gohary plotted the 1982 and 1993 victories of Ahly and Zamalek respectively.
Ghana
Former AshantiGold Ghana captain and forward Shafiu Mumuni has joined US Monastir Tunisia on a two-year contract.
He will replace compatriot Anthony Okpotu at the club that lifted the Tunisian Cup for the first time recently by upsetting Esperance, the four-time African champion.
The 25-year-old began his professional career with Wassaman United in 2011 and moved to AshantiGold a year later.
Sudan
Cabten Bashir scored after just 12 minutes to give Sudan’s Al Amal Atbara a 1-0 home win over Zanzibar’s KVZ in the first leg of the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup.
The Sudanese dominated the match at Omdurman only to be disappointed by a poor finish before the second leg on the Indian Ocean island next weekend.
Atbara and KVZ are making second appearances in the African equivalent of the UEFA Europa League after suffering losses in the preliminary round.
South Africa
New coach Ernst Middendorp watched from the stands as Maritzburg United trailed 2-1 at home to SuperSport United and remain useless after five consecutive defeats in the South African Premiership.
The 62-year-old German will take over the last club next week after leaving Ethiopian club Saint George with just a month on his three-year contract.
Middendorp succeeds Eric Tinkler, the former South African midfielder who was fired after a disastrous start to the season.
Tunisia
Newcomers US Monastir scored each half to defeat Ethiopia’s Fasil Kenema 2-0 in the first leg of the preliminary round of the Confederation Cup.
Ali al Omari scored after just three minutes for the North Africans at Monastir and Fahmi Ben Ramadan doubled the lead in the 12th minute of the second half.
Kenema, who is making a second consecutive appearance in the competition, impressed during the first half and had no luck falling behind at halftime.
Guinea
Guinea’s CI Kamsar drew 0-0 at home to Renaissance of Chad in the first leg of the preliminary round of the Confederation Cup in Conakry.
The Guineans were expected to build a global advantage in their quest to emulate their compatriots Horoya, who reached the semi-finals of the African second-division club competition last season.
Renaissance will host the second leg in N’Djamena next weekend in hopes of clinching a rare Chadian victory in a CAF club competition.
Morocco
Ghana’s Asante Kotoko winger Augustine Okrah has signed a three-year contract with Renaissance Confederation Cup champion Berkane of Morocco.
The deal is reportedly worth 140,000 euros ($ 165,000) and comes two months before his contract with the Ghana club expires and he becomes a free agent.
Berkane is based in northeast Morocco, a citrus grower and is popularly known as the ‘Orange Boys’.
