Rulani Mokwena turned down offers from two North African clubs with whom he had held talks, opting instead to join Moroccan giants Wydad Casablanca.
Wydad moved swiftly to secure the services of Mokwena a week after he parted ways with the Brazilians.
The Casablanca-based outfit had a poor run in the 2023/24 season ending the Botola Pro campaign in the sixth position. Therefore, they failed to qualify for any CAF competitions.
Red Castle have been without a permanent head coach since in the mid-season when they sacked Adel Ramzi. They appointed Aziz Ben Askar as an interim coach until the end of the season.
WHICH TWO CLUBS APPROACHED MOKWENA BEFORE WYDAD HIS CASABLANCA’S APPOINTMENT?
Afrik-Foot has learnt that Mokwena was in talks with USM Alger of Algeria and AS FAR Rabat of Morocco.
USM Alger haven’t appointed a new head coach since May when Juan Carlos Garrido handed his resignation. Meanwhile, Rabat recently lost Nasreddine Nabi to Kaizer Chiefs.
Mokwena eventually chose Wydad’s project and was officially named as the club’s head coach on Thursday afternoon.
According to the reports, Mokwena’s mandate is to bring back Wydad to CAF Champions League football. He’s also expected to win the domestic trophies and get the better of their local arch-rivals Raja Casablanca.
Speaking at his first press conference as Wydad coach, Mokwena revealed that many had advised him against accepting the club's offer due to its well-known challenges. However, the club's president assured him that these issues had been resolved.
WHY RULANI MOKWENA JOINED WYDAD CASABLANCA?
“It’s quite a complicated situation that we have here,” said Mokwena.
“I’ve done quite a lot of research, I’ve spoken to quite a lot of people, and I even said a lot of people said to me, ‘Don’t go to Wydad; there are lots of problems’. But I spoke to the board, I spoke to the chairman, the president, and I spoke to my agent. And I know all the mitigating factors that the club faced last season.
“All the issues that came up in the past, I have been promised by the president [Ait Menna], whom I get a very good feeling from is that those are issues of the past and these are now times we are going to transition, we look for change.
“We’re going to have to put in a lot of work, a lot of hands-on deck, and push ourselves more. But at the same time, we are excited about the new direction we are taking.”
