You wouldn’t ever think it would happen, but guess what – Pitso Mosimane has been rated as a better coach in 2016 than Jose Mourinho, Arsene Wenger and Carlo Ancelotti.
Mosimane guided Mamelodi Sundowns to the Caf Champions League title for the first time in the Pretoria club’s history, while Masandawana also clinched their record seventh Premiership crown last season.
It has resulted in the former Bafana Bafana mentor being listed at No 10 on the world’s best club managers ranking for 2016 – compiled by the International Federation of Football History and Statistics - which is somewhat surprisingly headed by Argentinian Diego Simeone, whose Atletico Madrid side didn’t win a trophy this year.
Uefa Champions League winners Real Madrid saw their manager Zinedine Zidane placed second, with Leicester City’s Claudio Ranieri rounding up the top-three after his club’s fairytale journey to the Premier League title.
Manchester City’s Pep Guardiola, who left Bayern Munich at the end of last season after winning three titles, comes in at fourth spot.
Mourinho is one of the big-name absentees on the top-12 list, having departed from Chelsea last December and joined Manchester United in late May.
Of course, recently-fired Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba didn't feature anywhere on the national coaches’ list, which is topped by Portugal’s Euro 2016 title-winning boss Fernando Santos.
2016 Club Managers Ranking
1 Diego Simeone (Atletico Madrid) 113 points
2 Zinedine Zidane (Real Madrid) 108
3 Claudio Ranieri (Leicester City) 86
4 Pep Guardiola (Bayern Munich/Manchester City) 62
5 Unai Emery (Sevilla/Paris Saint-Germain) 38
6 Luis Enrique (Barcelona) 24
7 Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool) 16
8 Mauricio Pochettino (Tottenham Hotspur) 15
9 Massimiliano Allegri (Juventus) 6
10 Pitso Mosimane (Mamelodi Sundowns) 5
11 Arsene Wenger (Arsenal) 4
12 Leonardo Jardim (Monaco) and Laurent Blanc (Paris Saint-Germain) 3
2016 National Team Managers
1 Fernando Santos (Portugal) 199 points
2 Lars Lagerbeck (Sweden/Iceland) 71
3 Joachim Löw (Germany) 62 4 Chris Coleman (Wales) 61
5 Didier Deshamps (France) 52
6 Antonio Conte (Italy) 17
7 Ante Cacic (Croatia) 8 8 Marc Wilmots (Belgium) and Tite (Brazil) 3 10 Bernd Storck (Hungary), Ange Postecoglu (Australia) and Adam Nawalka (Poland) 1
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