Rulani Mokwena's latest achievement with Mamelodi Sundowns has been lauded as the perfect example of how clubs don't to always recruit from Europe if they back their technical team and eliminate interference.
Mokwena made history on Sunday when lifting the inaugural African Football League after getting the better of Wydad Casablanca to walk away with the USD4 (approx. R75 million) prizemoney.
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The 36-year-old has only been in sole charge for just over a year and in that time has overseen 54 games winning 37 with 14 draws and two defeats in open play which came against Stellenbosch and Wydad.
"I like the fact that Rulani has a big heart and is brave enough to stand up against European coaches that he has come up against," says retired footballer Fikru Tefera talking to KickOff.com from Ethiopia where he has also started his own coaching journey.
"Rulani is outdoing a lot of the overrated European coaches who come to our continent with the mentality of mercenaries.
"Rulani is better than all these mercenaries who can't get top league coaching jobs in their own countries.
"A coach like Rulani has had to do it the hard to get to where he is now because he started out as a development coach at Platinum Stars and has even been to clubs like Chippa United.
"If what has been achieved by Rulani was done by a white man then you can imagine the amount of noise.
"Africans need to start celebrating their own instead of always looking down at each other even when we achieve big like what Rulani has done.
"This is a huge achievement for a coach who started from the bottom but has had to put incredible amount of work backstage to get Sundowns where they are now.
"Pitso opened doors for a black African coach to be respected on the continent and now Rulani is following suit.
"After Sundowns, it is guaranteed that Rulani will also have a chance with the big North African teams that never looked this side before for coaches.
"Rulani has earned their respect, and we must stand up and show that he is a coach who has achieved.
"If we don't praise him, who is going to do so.
"Do you expect the Europeans coaches who want his job to praise him?
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"The guys in Europe don't respect our coaches and will never consider our coaches even for second division clubs so we also need to stand for our own.
"From the way Sundowns is playing it shows that Rulani has taken them to another level higher up than where they were before," says Tefera.