Following the departure of Coach Miloud Hamdi, who has joined Ismaily as the Technical Director of the Egyptian Premier League club, the name of the renowned South African coach, Rulani Mokwena, has resurfaced in Jangwani.
Reliable sources within the Yanga leadership have confirmed that Yanga President, Engineer Hersi Said, held talks with Mokwena, who is currently unattached after parting ways with Wydad.
With Yanga aiming to perform strongly in the upcoming CAF Champions League, the club is targeting a coach like Mokwena, who has vast experience reaching the quarterfinals, semifinals, and even finals while at Mamelodi Sundowns.
Although his time at Wydad was short, he helped the club finish third in the Moroccan league and qualify for the CAF Confederation Cup (CAF CC), which is seen as an achievement considering the club’s poor state before his arrival.
Bringing in a coach like Mokwena, who has an impressive record especially from his time at Mamelodi, could be a significant step toward strengthening the squad and achieving the club's ambitions.
There are concerns about whether Yanga can afford Mokwena, but sometimes coaches don’t just focus on financial gain—they also consider the club’s infrastructure and operational systems.
In one of his interviews, Mokwena revealed that Wydad did not pay him for several months and that he is still owed money. At one point, he even had to pay some members of his technical team out of his own pocket due to the club’s financial crisis.
Yanga has a moderate but stable economy and is among the few professionally-run clubs in Africa. It now has the ability to sign top players, and its environment could easily attract a coach of Mokwena's caliber.
Mokwena could represent a new era of transformation, particularly in helping the team go beyond the group stage of the Champions League and achieve greater success than in previous years.
