One of South Africa’s youngest and brightest coaches Rulani Mokwena didn’t exactly hit the ground running at the helm of Morocco’s Wydad Casablanca.
However, the 38-year-old is starting to show his hand, and Wydad are back to winning ways, with five league wins on the trot to propel themselves to second spot on the table, albeit 13 points behind the leaders RS Berkane with nine matches remaining in the 2024/25 Morocco Botola.
There’s progress. Last season was nothing to write home about for Wydad, who finished in sixth place. They ended the last campaign an embarrassing 28 points behind eventual winners and nemesis, Raja Casablanca.
To make matters worse, Wydad missed out on continental football, with no place in either the 2024/25 CAF Champions League or CAF Confederation Cup.
Mokwena’s appointment was welcomed by all in the Red Castle, but the Soweto native’s arrival was marred by the fact that Wydad had to contend with a FIFA transfer ban, owing to their terrible dealings, which saw them being dragged to the world football’s controlling body by former players, who cried foul as their contracts were terminated without “just cause”. This was later proved.
As if that wasn’t enough, Wydad was under pressure to put their house in order because they had brought over 18 new signings, and once registered after FIFA removed the ban, they took some time to settle in, resulting in a difficult start.
During an interview with CAF, Mokwena acknowledged the challenges, but in the same breath is confident he’d live up to his given Moroccan name, Achraf—the honourable one.
“The club is in a very difficult situation. A club of Wydad’s stature should be in the Champions League. That’s something that hurts me, the fact that we are not in the Champions League. But we know where the club is,” said Mokwena, who’s apparently had to deal with some unruly players.
“We have to work a lot harder now to get it where it should be… I wanted to be a part of that; to revive this sleeping giant. Slowly and surely we are getting closer to where we need to go,” he added.
Mokwena is on the same page as the club’s president, Hicham Ait Menna, who’s always backed the former since his arrival on a three-year contract.
Now the focus is to give it one last try in chasing down Berkane for league honours and if Wydad’s current form is anything to go by, the “sleeping giant” may well be in with a chance to add to their record 22 league titles.
