Cardoso added to long list of Sundowns coaches

Portuguese coach Miguel Cardoso becomes the 38th man to take charge of Mamelodi Sundowns since their maiden season in the top flight of the domestic game in 1983.

Cardoso was named on Tuesday as the new coach of the champions, replacing Manqoba Mngqithi who was fired despite winning 13 of 19 games played this season.

The 52-year-old from Porto is the 25th foreigner in charge at the club but the first from Portugal. Sundowns have previously hired coaches from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, France Germany, Netherlands, Peru, Romania Russia, Serbia and Spain previously.

But it is Pitso Mosimane, who spent eight season at the club who proved the most successful in terms of trophies won and time spent in the job.

While there have been several South African coaches of Portuguese descent who worked at various local clubs in the top flight over the decades, like Roger de Sa, Sergio dos Santos, Zeca Marques, Frank ‘Jingles’ Perreira and Manny Pinheiro, Cardoso is the first coach to come from Portugal for a job in South African club football.

Carlos Queiroz was Bafana Bafana coach from October 2000 to March 2002, qualifying the country for the both the World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations in 2002.

Here is a list of all Sundowns previous coaches, both permanent and interim and the date they first look charge at the club. Several had multiple stints in charge.

1983: Dave Barber

1984: Steve Coetzee, Walter da Silva

1985: Ben Segale

1986: Stanley Tshabalala

1988: Mike Ntombela, Mario Tuane

1989: Angelo Tsichlas, Trott Moloto, Stan Lapot

1991: Augusto Palacios

1992: Pietr Packert

1993: Jeff Butler

1995: Clemens Westerhof

1996: Johnny Ferreira, Reinhard Fabisch, Ted Dumitru

1999: Peter Koutroulis, Neil Tovey, Paul Dolezar

2002: Shane MacGregor, Viktor Bondarenko, Djalma Cavalcante

2003: Roger Feutmba, Luis-Oscar Fullone, Khabo Zondo

2005: Angel Cappa, Miguel Gamondi

2006: Gordon Igesund

2007: Henri Michel

2009: Hristo Stoichkov

2010: Antonio Lopez, Ian Gorowa

2011: Johan Neeskens

2012: Pitso Mosimane

2020: Manqoba Mngqithi, Rulani Mokwena