Ouaddou in stamp of excellence at Pirates
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Abdeslam Ouaddou has delivered the best league results for Orlando Pirates through their PSL history stretching back to the 1996/97 season. Photo: Gallo Images.
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Ouaddou in stamp of excellence at Pirates
Aug 17, 2026 – 12:09 pm
By Lovemore Moyo
Abdeslam Ouaddou has attached a stamp of excellence to what he has delivered for Orlando Pirates having begun the opening 10th of his second season in charge with a top-of-the-table seat.
Ouaddou’s first season in charge last term not only came with the league title but was the club’s best on all fronts.
The 14-year wait for the league championship came with the highest points tally (69 points) ever for the club, surpassing the 64 points of the 1996/97 and 1999/2000 campaigns.
That was 2,3 points per game from the 30-game league season. Pirates won 21 out of 30 – the most recorded in a single campaign.
Over a 30-game season, 58 goals were also the most scored by the Soweto giants in the league, surpassing the 52 from 2004/05.
Twelve was also the fewest they conceded after improving on the 16 from the 2002/03 title-winning season.
The +46 was another top achievement, besides the fact that they also won another two trophies – the MTN8 and Carling Knockout.
Into the new season, Ouaddou has guided Pirates back to the top, reaffirming his position in delivering the best league results for the club throughout his reign in charge.
This gives him a 70% winning rate – impressive by any standards set anywhere in the world.
He has only lost thrice, and two of those defeats were in his first two league games in charge.
At 2,3 points per match, Ouaddou has the best points-per-match average of any coach that has been in charge since Viktor Bondarenko, Augusto Palacios, and Ronald Mkandawire got their turns to run the rule through the 1996/97 season.
Ouaddou has done his job at Bucs with the usual dosage of criticism pointed in his direction.
“Maybe my only disadvantage as a coach is that I’m too honest, and there is a lot of hypocrisy in this ecosystem of football, and maybe sometimes I’m too honest.
“I think we don’t have to do that for people to understand when the coach is asking something for the players.
“The coach is here to touch one essential point of psychology, and we had it today (Sunday’s 3-0 victory over Chippa United),” says Ouaddou.