“Appointing coaches at Sundowns will always be based on the playing style, philosophy and the way Sundowns wants to play football. This is a big decision and we don’t jump in with closed eyes — we have done the research.
“Go back to Celta Vigo [under Cardoso in 2018-19], which was for me one of the most exciting teams in Europe, a top team with Iago Aspas and other good players, and see how they were playing football and you will see the similarities [with Sundowns].
“When you take a team like Rio Ave, who have maybe the 12th-biggest budget in Portuguese football and making them a solid No 5 [in the league], but playing football with similarities to Sundowns. And yes, I saw all of Esperance’s [Champions League] games last year, because I do my research because we were playing them. And again, I can see what Miguel was trying to do there.
“So there are so many things that convinced us this was the right decision.”
Mngqithi was joined by assistant coach Romain Folz and goalkeeper coach Wendell Robinson on Downs’ technical staff exit list. Senior coach Steve Komphela and another goalkeeper-coach, Kennedy Mweene, kept their jobs.