05:30 PM
Thursday, November 2, 2023
Written by Hind Awad:
Mamelodi Sun Downs achieved a breakthrough in its African career and embarrassed the major clubs on the continent, starting with achieving the 2016 African Champions League at the expense of Zamalek, through defeating Al-Ahly (the most crowned champions in the Champions League) by five, twice, and eliminating it from the African Super League championship, yesterday evening.
The success of the South African team was not born overnight. The story of Sun Downs began in the sixties of the last century, in “Pretoria” in 1970, where a group of young men, headed by the duo, Motsiri and Boni Sibotsan, gathered to establish the South African club.
Sun Downs was relegated to the second division in South Africa in 1980, until someone appeared who influenced its path and put it at the beginning of a path that it is still following until now. He returned again to the South African League in 1984, when Zola Mahobi bought him, beginning a new era of unlimited spending and buying players, which the writer Walter Don Laporte described as “He has a wallet that never stops giving,” in his book “The Legend of Zola.” Mohabe And Mamelodi Sundown Story”, which tells the story of Mahobe’s purchase of the club.
According to Mahoubi’s biography, the owner of Sun Downs created a new policy for the team that relied on spending money and buying players. He wanted to create an identity for the club, and appointed Stanley Tshabalala as the team’s technical director. This coach received training courses in several clubs from whom he was inspired by his philosophy, including Juventus and Milan.
Behind this extravagance was a major takeover of Standard Bank, for which Mahobi was imprisoned, as he was taking a cent daily from the bank’s clients and adding it to his account. According to the book by Walter Don LaPorte.
Following the previous policy, the team was nicknamed “Bafana Bas-Style” because of the football they play, and their playing style, which was founded by “Tshabalala,” is called “Shoeshine and the Piano” due to the construction of the play from the back, passing through narrow spaces, and controlling the course of the match, according to the website. Official club.
Sundowns are also called “The Brazilians”, due to the similarity of their uniform to the Samba national team. The previous period ended with the arrest of the starting seed.
Second period
The seed planted by Zola Mahobi matured at the hands of the current president of the African Confederation, Patrice Motsepe, who bought the Sun Downs club in 2004, and during this period the team won the league championship in two consecutive seasons, 2006 and 2007, as well as the 2016 CAF Champions League championship.
The reason behind the club’s second boom was the thought of Johan Cruyff, after Motsepe contracted with him to help launch the development program. He recommended the Dutch legend Johan Neeskens, the former Barcelona player, to coach Sun Downs, and the first duo signed a contract at that time, for the consultants in Johan’s company to work as those responsible for the Sun Downs Academy. , according to the newspaper “Soweltan Live”.
Motsepe did not stop at this point in developing the Sun Downs project, as he appointed Galum Valodia, head of the club’s analyst department, to analyze the performance of competitors and appointed Michael Luftmarn as the club’s free-kick coach, following in the footsteps of Real Madrid, Manchester United and Chelsea.
Sun Downs has a scouting team to search for talent that competes with major European clubs, according to the “SABC Sport” website. Nyandoro and Thembila Maliwa are responsible for searching for what players the club needs in various positions.
Moving between the positions of different positions at Sun Downs Club, Danish Flemming Berg took over the position of director of football, succeeding former Barcelona legend, Ramon Alesanko.
The post first appeared on www.masrawy.com