NEVER MEET YOUR HEROES!

Well, don’t tell that to Rulani Mokwena. You can bet he’s already practicing the greeting and deciding on what he will wear for the occasion.

The young South African coach’s admiration of Pep Guardiola is legendary. And now that he is about to pit his tactics against the man he considers a coaching god of sorts, what chance the English proverb rings true?

From his regular references to the Spaniard coach during his time at Mamelodi Sundowns, you got the impression that Mokwena had some kind of acquaintance to Guardiola – albeit perhaps not personal but via social media.

He is now going to go head to head with the Manchester City coach with his Wydad Athletic Club after the two teams were drawn into Group G of the FIFA Club World Cup that will be played in the United States next July.

How will this meeting impact on Mokwena’s high regard for the former Barcelona and Bayern Munich coach, one wonders?

Is he going to be overawed and behave like a love-struck teen on the sidelines as Guardiola guides City to walloping Wydad or will Mokwena be in his element and inspire his team to what would be a career changing victory?

It is a match you can bet just about everyone on the continent will not want to miss – an upstart from Africa taking on a highly accomplished and world renowned coach he has worked hard to model his coaching on.

Of course, Mokwena did his best not to betray the excitement the draw must have brought him as he spoke to the Wydad media – focusing solely on what the experience of playing City, Italian giants Juventus as well as Asian champions Al Ain- will mean for his club.

“When you are in a group like this, you cannot lose; you will play against very good teams. Manchester City, of course, we know the quality they have. Juventus is a strong team and they probably play the best football, maybe like City. And Al Ain are the Asian champions. So, when you play in a group like this you cannot lose,” he said.

Progression to the knockout stage will take some doing for the team that is having it hard in their domestic Botola Pro 1 league where they are currently in fourth place, eight points behind leaders RS Berkane. And Mokwena is realistic about his expectations.

“We will try to win one match in the World Cup. This is Wydad’s third Club World Cup and there are no easy matches for the team. We will try to win one and then we will see what happens because even if you do not qualify from the group, the experience you will gain from playing against Manchester City and Juventus, is the one that will make the team stronger for the coming seasons.”

And he is sure going to be a better coach from the experience of leading his team against his role model. But then again, that English proverb – could Pep fail to fulfill Rulani’s expectations and leave the young man disappointed?