Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso is delighted that he has been able to silence his doubters after his team won the PSL title on Wednesday.
Sundowns sealed the title following a 3-0 thrashing of Chippa United which took their tally to 70 points from 27 games, ensuring that Cardoso was the man to deliver an eighth straight league crown.
The Portuguese tactician celebrated wildly and then went on to explain how he felt a lot of suspicion about him when he arrived to replace Manqoba Mngqithi last December.
Cardoso revels in title glory
“I know that people were very suspicious when I arrived in this country, I don’t know why,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV.
“But I just make love to everybody, I love to be in South Africa, I love to be among you, I love your culture, I love your country.
“And I love to be part of the Masandawana family that really received me like I was one of them. That gave me a very strong starting point to give also the best for myself.”
Cardoso then went into details about how winning the title was challenging for his team who have had to play two matches every week since the turn of the year.
How did Sundowns cope with the race?
“It was challenging, but very beautiful. I said to them [players] it will be very hard, but it will be very beautiful,” he added.
“We needed to believe in the work every day when you work with a group of players of these characters it’s not easy. Obviously, we knew that there was a new proposal, new ideas, changing a lot, but we believe a lot on ourselves.
“When you believe in ourselves, we made them also believe in them and it was important to conquer the hearts, minds because in football appears. I hope South Africa and football in general understand the work that’s being done in Mamelodi Sundowns because in these last weeks it seems everything happened but we were not there.”
Sundowns have won the league with a match to spare and can now turn their attention to the CAF Champions League final against Egyptian side Pyramids who they face in a two-legged match on May 24 and June 1.
