The Champions Series: Selekedi Mogale, Mamelodi Sundowns u15 head coach
With the 2024 Gauteng Development League (GDL) done and dusted, SuperSport Schools Plus explores the journeys of the teams that triumphed this season under the “Champions Series” banner.
This week, Ongama Gcwabe narrates the story of the u15 champions, Mamelodi Sundowns, with the help of head coach Selekedi Mogale.
The ups and downs of the 2024 season
For the past three seasons, coach Selekedi Mogale’s Mamelodi Sundowns have finished in the top three of the GDL, but they were prevented from winning the league title by the School of Excellence, in 2022, and Kaizer Chiefs, in 2023.
This year, though, Mogale’s team dominated the title race, racking up a record-breaking 95 points after winning 31 games, drawing two, and losing only one.
Mogale juggled the league challenge with his ambitions for silverware in the cup competitions, which made 2024 mentally challenging, he said.
Challenging it may have been, but Sundowns, under Mogale, won an astounding five competitions, including the GDL Top Eight at the start of the season, the African Schools Championship National, Kapstadt Cup u14, the Cosafa African Schools Championship, and, most recently, the GDL a week ago.
“It was an emotional roller-coaster and unbelievable as well. It was so interesting to see these kids perform. Even on the days when I thought that they were tired, they would still push on and just never give up,” Mogale told SuperSport Schools Plus in an exclusive interview.
“Hence, we achieved the results that we achieved, which is incredible. I don’t underestimate what these boys have achieved by a long shot and I’m truly grateful for them and the effort that they’ve put in.”
Mogale told SuperSport Schools that his team’s victories over their arch-rivals SuperSport United, Kaizer Chiefs, and the School of Excellence were the highlights of his season.
“The game versus SuperSport United, the first one, which we won convincingly (4-2). Even for the second one (1-0), I think we should’ve won that convincingly, but with the way we played and exerted ourselves, I was very happy,” he said.
“To cap it off, we had a very emphatic win over our rivals, Kaizer Chiefs. We beat them 4-1 and even that one goal was a giveaway, and that has been the downside of the season. We’ve given away cheap goals.
“To a large extent, you could count maybe three stunners where you could say there’s nothing our goalkeeper could have done about that. So, in general, we gave away cheap goals.
“On the defensive part, we need to learn. I think, internationally, we can be punished for some of the things that we do and these are the differences that see us get knocked out of major tournaments on the continent.”
Coaching Philosophy
Being in charge of young footballers at a club like Sundowns, a club that demands success and trophies, can be a tricky job. However, Mogale’s players-based coaching philosophy has carried him well in his journey with Africa’s biggest football club.
“My coaching philosophy is player-based. So, it’s not me imposing myself on the players but it’s the players showing me what they can do and me putting them to the test,” he said.
“So, it’s everything according to their ability, their mentality, and even their physical ability to handle things.”
To close off the year, Mogale has set his sights on the GDL Cup to conclude what has been a remarkable and memorable year.
