Rhulani Mokwena (born January 8, 1987) is a South African

football manager ''Football Manager'' (also known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager'' in North America from 2004 to 2008) is a series of football management simulation video games developed by British developer Sports Interactive and published by Sega. The game beg ...

who is the manager of

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football l ...

. The son of former

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...

player Julias Sono, and nephew to

Jomo Sono Ephraim Matsilele Sono OIS (born Madoda Walletjies Mkulwana, 17 July 1955), better known as Jomo Sono, is a South African football club owner, coach and former professional footballer. He has been variously nicknamed the "Black Prince of South ...

, Mokwena hails from a footballing family and started his professional coaching career in the youth systems at

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, before serving as an assistant manager at

and Pirates. In 2019, he became interim manager of the latter club, holding the position for five months, before being appointed as the head coach at Chippa United the following year.

Early career

Mokwena's first notable foray into football came at

, later known as Platinum Stars, where he honed his skills under coaches such as

Steve Komphela Steve Komphela (born 1 July 1967) is a South African football coach and a former player. He is the former manager of Maritzburg United, Kaizer Chiefs, Golden Arrows and Bloemfontein Celtic. He is currently working as a Senior Coach at Mamelod ...

, Cavin Johnson and

Allan Freese Allan may refer to: People * Allan (name), a given name and surname, including list of people and characters with this name * Allan (footballer, born 1984) (Allan Barreto da Silva), Brazilian football striker * Allan (footballer, born 1989) (Al ...

. In 2014, he joined

where, after excelling with the club's development team, he was promoted to be one of manager

Pitso Mosimane Pitso John Hamilton Mosimane (born 26 July 1964) is a South African professional football manager and a former player. He is the current manager of Saudi Arabian club Al-Ahli Jeddah. He is considered as one of the greatest coaches in Africa an ...

's assistant managers, alongside

Manqoba Mngqithi Manqoba Mngqithi (born 25 April 1971 in Umzimkhulu) is a South African football coach who is the "senior coach" of Mamelodi Sundowns. He has managed a number of clubs in the Premier Soccer League.Manqoba Mqithi is considered as one of the best ...

and Alex Bapela. Mokwena stayed with Masandawana until 2017, helping the club win the

2016 CAF Champions League The 2016 CAF Champions League (officially the 2016 Orange CAF Champions League for sponsorship reasons) was the 52nd edition of Africa's premier club football tournament organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF), and the 20th editio ...

title, before taking up a role as the assistant manager to

Milutin Sredojević Milutin Sredojević ( sr-Cyrl, Милутин Средојевић; born 1 September 1969), simply known as Micho, is a Serbian Association football, football manager who currently serves as the head coach of the Uganda national football team. He ...

Managerial career

Orlando Pirates

In August 2019, after Sredojević unexpectedly resigned at Pirates, Mokwena was named as the new interim-manager of the club and he marked his managerial debut with a 1-0

MTN 8 MTN 8 is the current branding for a South African soccer cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding top-flight league (currently the DStv Premiership) season. T ...

defeat to

Highlands Park Highlands Park Football Club was a South African professional soccer club who played in Modderfontein, Johannesburg. They were founded in 2003 as a phoenix club to the earlier Highlands Park F.C. (1959) and Highlands Park F.C. (1990) The c ...

. Over the next five months, he took charge of 14 matches, winning four, drawing five and losing five, before returning to the assistant manager's role following the appointment of

Josef Zinnbauer Josef "Joe" Zinnbauer (born 1 May 1970) is a German football manager and former player. He played as a midfielder. Playing career Zinnbauer retired from playing after suffering a cartilage injury. Coaching career Zinnbauer's coaching career s ...

in December.

Chippa United

On 4 March 2020, Mokwena left Zinnbauer's side after being appointed as the head coach of fellow Premier Division side

Chippa United Chippa United Football Club (often known as Chilli boys or Chippa) is a South African professional football club based in Gqeberha in the Eastern Cape province, having previously being based in Nyanga suburb of the city of Cape Town. The club' ...

on a short-term deal. However, his time with the club was disrupted by the

COVID-19 outbreak The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

, which saw the league suspended later that month, and by the end of his contract in June he had overseen just one match in charge for the season.

Mamelodi Sundowns

In 2020 Mokwena became co-coach of

alongside

. In October 2022, "Mngqithi was assigned to a new role as Sundowns' senior coach in what is a demotion from the position of co-coach. He will now be working under new head coach Rhulani Mokwena",

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reported.

Career statistics

Manager

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mokwena, Rhulani 1987 births Living people South African sportspeople South African soccer managers Premier Soccer League managers Orlando Pirates F.C. managers Chippa United F.C. managers Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. managers