Two Portuguese coaches, Miguel Cardoso of Mamelodi Sundowns and Alexandre Santos of AS FAR will face-off in Sunday’s TotalEnergies CAF Champions League final in Rabat.
Both coaches will bring the Portuguese coaching tactics to bear in a North-South African battle for continental glory in Morocco.
The final presents a symbol of the growing influence of Portuguese coaches in African club football, with both coaches standing on opposite sides of the continent’s biggest club match.
Santos was appointed by FAR Rabat in February 2025, and has helped take the Moroccan club to their first CAF Champions League final since 1985, when they won the title.
His rise in African football was already marked by his work with Petro de Luanda in Angola, where he produced some continental results.
Santos also admitted that Portuguese coaches working in Africa have not always received the attention they deserve.
“Sometimes, we don’t have very many approaches from the media in our country.
Read also: CAF Champions League: Rivers United force Power Dynamos to goalless
“In the last few years, some people from Portugal tried to give attention. When I was at Petro and I played against Sundowns, we did a very good job,” he said after the first leg.
Cardoso is appearing in another CAF Champions League final after his recent runs with Espérance and Sundowns, and believes Portuguese football has still not fully understood the size of the achievements being made by its coaches in Africa.
“I think that the international football community in Europe – I can speak especially about Portugal – doesn’t really understand the level of what the CAF Champions League is,” Cardoso said.
“It’s a shame for my country that it doesn’t really understand the dimension of the achievements that some Portuguese coaches have been doing in Africa.”
Two Portuguese coaches have guided two major African clubs to the final of the continent’s premier club competition, but both have suggested that their work often receives less attention at home than similar achievements in Europe.
This year’s final will be an intense battle in front of a sold-out stadium, a fitting end to what has been an exhilarating season of TotalEnergies CAF interclub football.
There are key players and contests all over the pitch, both teams scoring an average 23 goals combined from league stage to Sunday’s final.
AS FAR with 8 goals ranked 7th in the competition, while Sundowns with 15 goals ranked second, with only Pyramids FC with 16 goals, scoring one goal more than Sundowns from the start of the group stage.
Similarly, Sunday’s final will also see two of the defence go up against each other in Rabat. AS FAR has only conceded 6 goals all through competition (11th), while Sundowns conceded four goals (8th) through the tournament.
Both teams have played 11 matches since the start of the group stage and have been fairly miserly in defence.
