Kekana backs Cardoso to deliver Sundowns' second CAF Champions League title

Photo Credit - Mamelodi Sundowns.

Former Mamelodi Sundowns captain Hlompho Kekana has called on the club’s management not to fire head coach Miguel Cardoso following his failure to win the CAF Champions League trophy this season.

The South African team finished runners-up, losing 3-2 to Egypt's Pyramids in the two-legged final (1-1, 2-1).

This was the second time Cardoso had failed to capture the lucrative trophy, having been eliminated by ES Tunis in the semi-finals last season.

However, according to Kekana, who lifted the trophy with Sundowns in 2016 under Pitso Mosimane's management, Cardoso remains the right man to win the trophy for the second time.

“Personally, I think he's done very well since he's come to Mamelodi Sundowns, considering that he got the team seven games into the league already,” Kekana told SABC Sports.

“It's not easy to come into South African football and try to get into the system and understand how players play – you know in South Africa we play with raw talent, so you need to understand that and try to get them to buy into your philosophy.

“But when I look at the overall performance of this year already, I feel like he has done enough to put the team in the Champions League final – which, for me, I think they deserved to win that final, but that's how football goes.”

He concluded: “The teams you normally feel like you can beat, you might not beat, but I do support the coach. I still believe he can bring the Champions League [trophy] here to Sundowns.”

Having retained the Betway Premiership title again this season, Sundowns automatically qualify for next season's CAF Champions League.