Pitso Mosimane has been criticised over his stint at Iranian giants Esteghlal after the club’s former CEO Hojjat Karimi questioned why he was hired in the first place.
Mosimane severed ties with the club last month after a financial dispute following the non-payment of his salary over a number of months, since joining the club last October.
Jingles terminated his contract after the club failed to meet his demands but since his departure, the club has aimed a number of digs at him and the latest has come from the ex-CEO.
“Right from the start, the gentlemen claimed that they brought the African Lion to Iran,” Karimi said as quoted by Varzesh3.
Mosimane comes from ‘weak’ football nation
“Why did we need to bring a coach from Africa and a country whose football is much weaker than ours? We didn’t say anything during this time so as not to weaken the team, but it was clear to me that he wouldn’t succeed.
“Instead of bringing a coach to Esteghlal from a country with a style in football, we brought a coach from a place where I think Iran should export coaches [to].”
Karimi claims Mosimane was not better than many Iranian coaches that Esteghlal would have hired while adding that the tactician’s contract was too big as his pay would have attracted much better tacticians than him.
Did Pitso make a blunder by joining Esteghlal?
“The amount of Mosimane’s contract with Esteghlal, which was on par with the great world coaches, is truly unbelievable; especially for someone who certainly has much better coaches in Iran,” he added.
“Interestingly, if we look at Iranian coaches, they create a thousand rumours and gossip about why you pay them so much money, while among Iranian coaches there are more qualified figures who could have become Esteghlal’s head coach, and among the foreign options there were definitely better coaches.”
Mosimane left Esteghlal in 11th position on the table after winning three of his 15 games in charge, drawing eight and losing four, while his side managed to score seven goals while conceding 13.
