Abdeslam Ouaddou reignites SA soccer’s flair versus results debate

Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou seems to have violently shaken a tree full of hornets’ nests when he criticised his team for easing up on the tempo in an African Champions League qualification second-leg match against Mauritius’s La Cure Waves a fortnight ago.

Although his team eventually walked away with a 3-1 aggregate victory, the Moroccan tactician was livid after the match.

In the second stanza of that second leg, some of the players had brought out some “kasi flavour” (township flair) skills that usually stir excitement from the crowd in the stadium but are not always conducive to attacking intent. In South Africa, this style of play is a major part of the country’s soccer heritage. It involves juggling the ball, sometimes standing on it, and showcasing the types of tricks and flicks synonymous with street soccer.

Even players such as Pirates star Jomo Sono and Kaizer Chiefs legend Nelson “Teenage” Dladla are remembered for this exact brand of soccer, in addition to the other accolades they achieved in their storied careers.

However, according to Ouaddou, such acts of aimless entertainment have no place in professional soccer.

“We need to be more serious. To win the Champions League, we must stop these things. Because it does not help the team and does not serve anybody, except for serving the ego of the player who is doing these things. What I want as a coach is goals, goals, goals and more goals. That’s it,” Ouaddou said at a press conference.

“If my players are satisfied with three goals [when they can score more], then we lack ambition and we cannot go far. We need to take this job seriously. We must take it seriously. Soccer is about scoring goals. If they score five, six or seven goals, no problem, I will allow it, even if I don’t agree with them showboating,” the former Morocco defender added.

Second season pressure

This is Ouaddou’s second season at the helm of the Buccaneers after joining the club in mid-2025 as a replacement for Spaniard José Riveiro. Ouaddou built on the domestic trophy success that was prevalent under his predecessor by steering Pirates to their first Premiership title since 2012. This was in addition to the MTN8 and Carling Knockout Cup, giving them a memorable domestic treble during the 2025/26 season.

The former Fulham centre-back is hungry to emulate this achievement this season, and also throw in the Champions League title. According to Ouaddou, the only way the Sea Robbers can claim a second-ever overall victory (after winning it for the first time in 1995) is with mechanical ruthlessness in front of goal.

“The highest level and the best footballers are made by scoring goals. That’s also the expectation at Pirates, the mandate. My job as a coach is to improve players, so that they can do their best and win games. The moment I have to accept this showboating, I will pack my bags and stop coaching. Because it will not be my world. My world is ­winning games,” said the 47-year-old.

“There is a difference between skills that make you play forward and score goals and entertainment. Entertainment is not for me,” Ouaddou elaborated. “I’m coaching a professional soccer team and a huge club in Africa… If people want to see the Harlem Globetrotters [it won’t be under me]. We are here to win cups.”

SA’s soccer history

Of course, this is an age-old debate. On one hand, the humble beginnings of soccer in SA date back to it being merely a pastime, a form of exercise for British soldiers and civil servants when the country was expanding its colonial empire via colonising South Africa.

As time went on, locals adopted and personalised the sport, adding the local flavour and flair that still have the ability to raise spectators in local stadiums from their seats. This local adoption of the sport led to the formation of local clubs such as Pirates and Moroka Swallows. At that time, those pioneers could have never imagined that soccer would be the billion-dollar business it is in its modern variant.

As Ouaddou highlights, modern soccer is about the end result. It is about winning, even if you win ugly. Playing beautifully with no tangible results to show for it means history is likely to forget you. A great example of this is Pirates under the tutelage of Serbian Kosta Papić in the mid-2000s.

Papić built a team that played an exciting and highly attacking brand of soccer. Players such as Lebohang “Cheeseboy” Mokoena and Gift “Vum Vum” Leremi thrived under the uninhibited brand of soccer deployed by their Serbian coach. To this day, that team is considered one of the most exciting sides to ever grace SA soccer. However, it has no silverware to back this up.

Great sides are ultimately determined by trophies. From the Brazilian national teams that delivered the country’s five World Cup trophies to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona side and even Mamelodi Sundowns under Bafana Bafana’s Pitso Mosimane, the thin line between being great and just good is efficiency. That is what Ouaddou wants from his players.

A culture clash?

The question, then, is how does the Moroccan coach, whose view on soccer is heavily influenced by the lengthy time he spent in Europe as a player, meet South Africans halfway? How does he build the ruthless Pirates team he dreams of, while also feeding South African soccer fans’ hunger for kasi flavour at the stadium, especially knowing that if the team does not perform, it’s his job that will be on the line?

“Can we have an identity as South Africans? Please. We never used to have the word showboating in South African soccer. Where did it come from?” said former Pirates midfielder and coach Teboho Moloi on Radio 2000’s Game On.

“Why can’t our coach [Ouaddou] tell the boys that there is a place and time for such? It has to be with the purpose of moving forward. You have to have a certain end product. But we can’t call our style of playing showboating,” Moloi insisted.

“People must remember that during apartheid, the only thing that black men and boys knew was going to the field to be entertained or to entertain the crowd. But soccer has now become a business. So, we need to teach our players how to do our style in a productive way. But don’t call it showboating,” he added.

“Even people like Jomo Sono are quiet, but we learnt it from them. They should be encouraging the young boys to do it positively [but not eradicate it]. Why are we killing what we know? We could also say English soccer is skop en donder (route one). Ouaddou must be a teacher.

“He must look at the Pirates philosophy, look at his philosophy and match the two philosophies. That’s all.”

In theory, Moloi’s advice is not farfetched.

However, the reality on the ground is different. Pirates have spent millions providing Ouaddou with the necessary tools for success, including winning the Champions League.

Playing soccer that makes the fans scream and whistle in jubilation, without delivering on this mandate, will cost him his job.

After all, in modern soccer, the coach is always the scapegoat for perceived club failures. DM

This story first appeared in our weekly DM168 newspaper, available countrywide for R39. The e-edition of DM168 is now free for readers who are signed into their Daily Maverick account. Click on the cover of the newspaper below to access the e-edition.