From early setbacks to silverware: Ouaddou charts Buccaneers’ growth

Orlando Pirates ended their year exactly as they would have scripted it — with another trophy in hand and growing certainty that they are only flourishing under head coach Abdeslam Ouaddou.

Their Carling Knockout Cup triumph over Marumo Gallants not only completed a domestic cup double for 2025, but also underlined a shift in mentality and consistency that has carried the Buccaneers to the summit of the Betway Premiership heading into the AFCON break.

For Ouaddou, who replaced José Riveiro in July, the success marks an impressive turnaround from a difficult start that threatened to derail his early months in Soweto. The Moroccan-born mentor arrived with expectation weighing heavily on his shoulders. 

That weight grew even sharper when he lost his first two league matches — a stumble that, at a club of Pirates’ stature, can quickly become a crisis. Looking back now, with silverware secured and momentum firmly on their side, Ouaddou believes those early setbacks played a complicated yet formative role in shaping the team.

“Yes and not yes because when you lose one or two games at such a big club there’s already a fire in the house and you need to find a solution,” he said.

“I cannot lie to you and say I didn’t feel pressure (at the time) and I still feel that pressure because if you don’t feel this pressure, it’s dangerous because this positive pressure helps you to deliver performances and be better.”

That pressure was compounded by the scale of change within the squad. 

Pirates entered the season with a double-digit influx of new players, many of whom have since become central to Ouaddou’s structure.

“On the other hand, at the beginning, I had 10 new players that need to get your ideas and game model, I think the guys did well to understand quickly the expectation,” he explained. “At other clubs, you are given three or four months to get the ideas through, so I’m quiet satisfied about the way they reacted.”

If the initial defeats tested nerves internally, Ouaddou insists the club’s leadership remained steady, providing the calm, strategic backing he needed to begin shaping a side capable of delivering.

“What is very important is the trust and I’m lucky I’m at a club that’s managed by professional people. I am at a club that thinks football and has a vision as well as a project and they know exactly where they want to reach.

“I was lucky they understood the two losses were part of the process and they gave me time and that gives me trust as well in the management.”

The two cups — the MTN8 and the Carling Knockout — serve as markers of the team’s progress, but Ouaddou remains careful not to mistake early success for completion. He views humility as essential to sustaining momentum.

“Football is very difficult, the moment you think you’re the best, you slip so it’s important that we remain humble and to respect the path to reach the target,” he said.

For Pirates, that target is clear: to turn a promising 2025 into a defining one. And with two trophies already secured, pressure — the positive kind — continues to drive them forward.