By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Premier Soccer League (PSL) side TS Galaxy has confirmed that coach Sead Ramovic will be leaving the club to join Moroccan giants Raja Casablanca.
Speaking to SABC Sport, Galaxy president Tim Sukazi said Ramovic will take over from Josef Zinnbauer, who is moving to Saudi Arabia.
The German mentor had an impressive 2023/24 season with TS Galaxy. He guided the team to their first-ever top-eight finish in the PSL table.
Ramovic, 45, has improved a lot of players at the Rockets since he arrived three years ago and the team has benefited from selling some of their stars to big clubs in the PSL.
The 2019 Nedbank Cup champions sold Given Msimango, Melusi Buthelezi, Bathusi Aubaas, and recently Fiacre Ntwari to bigger clubs.
“It’s a done deal. Ramovic is expected to fly out after the friendly with Yanga FC and he will take with him the two assistant coaches, Beganovic Adnan and Kodro Mustafa, as well as goalkeeper coach Greg Etafia,” said Sukazi.
“It is part of our moral fibre to release our people when they are called for better opportunities elsewhere. We’ve mostly done it with our players and our coaches are not excluded from this governing principle at our Club,” Sukazi added.
“Raja Casablanca is amongst the top 5 clubs in the African continent and it is not so often that a coach gets head-hunted for their head coach position. Therefore, our blessings as given to coach Sead Ramovic are informed by our appreciation of the opportunity afforded to him. We wish him well and he will be an extension of our family in Morocco.”
Ramovic will reunited with Wydad Casablanca newly appointed coach Rhulani Mokwena in Morocco after his Mamelodi Sundowns exit.
The African soccer heavyweights confirmed this partnership on 11 July, officially naming Mokwena as the man the club hopes can reignite their faded aura as an African giant.
During the 2023/24 season, Wydad finished a lowly fifth place in Morocco’s top flight – the Botola Pro League.
It is the team’s lowest league finish in a decade. In 2013/14 they placed sixth. Since then, they have either won the league (five times) or finished as runners-up.
The team’s placing also means it will not be taking part in any Confederation of African Football (CAF) competitions. This includes the CAF Champions League, which they have lifted thrice, most recently in 2022, as well as the auxiliary CAF Confederation Cup, which they won in 2002.
“We are working, trying to sort out the squad and the training facilities. There is a lot of work to be done here,” Mokwena said.
“It’s a very big club; only a few months ago they were lifting the Champions League. So, it’s a sleeping giant. Fortunately, the giant has not been sleeping for too long.”
The Red Castle, as the club is known, has handed Mokwena a three-year contract and if his first season is anything like his overall Sundowns record, where he was in charge of 91 matches and won 60 (and drew 20 and lost nine).