Highly rated former Bafana Bafana coach Pitso Mosimane has named Zimbabwean international Khama Billiat among the best players he has ever coached in his career spanning over two decades.
Mosimane coached Billiat for four seasons at Mamelodi Sundowns, between 2014 to 2018.
The 32-year-old was a key figure in Mosimane’s trailblazing Sundowns that won several trophies including the much coveted CAF Champions League, CAF Super Cup, two domestic championships as well as the MTN-8 and Nedbank Cup.
The former Warriors attacker also won individual accolades under the watchful eye of the 54-year-old.
He was named first runner-up of the CAF African Player of the Year based in Africa in 2017.
This was a year after he had scooped South Africa’s best player of the year gong for 2015/16 in the then Absa Premiership campaign.
Meanwhile, asked to pick one player he regards as the best he has ever coached, in a dilemma, Mosimane could not settle for a single.
He named a number including Billiat among the likes of the great former Bafana Bafana star Benni McCarthy, Steven Pienaar and Katlego Mphela.
Mosimane said: “It’s a difficult one, because I coached national team – I’ve coached Benni McCarthy, I’ve coached Steven Pienaar.
“It’s difficult to say, there are top players in South Africa like Katlego Mphela, one of the top strikers, he played in France also, in Bordeaux.
“At Mamelodi Sundowns, my captain Hlompho Kekana was top a top player. Also Themba Zwane, one of the evergreen top players. Keagan Dolly, Khama Billiat.”
He added: “We can just go on, I can’t say. There are so many I can’t mention. You can’t say one player was better than the others.
“Even at Sundowns we signed a few players just before I was leaving. Those players are still showing that they are very good football players.
“I don’t know [who was the best], they are many. Maybe if I can pick a list of 20, 22 players, maybe I can get around there but one player, no I can’t.
“Because each player has his own generation. It’s like you say Alex Ferguson must say which player was good for him – he’ll tell you of Mark Hughes, he’ll tell you of Roy Keane, he’ll tell you probably of Cristiano Ronaldo, we can go and on.”
