Trebor Mahtal spent his childhood whiling away many a happy hour playing Championship Manager 1997/98, signing his Zambian heroes Zeddy Saileti, Modon Malitoli, and Davies Phiri from ‘Minor Team’ to spearhead his clubs to glory. The youngster’s football fascination saw him play to a decent level in his hometown of Chingola, in the province of Coppertown in northern Zambia. But realistically, Mahtal knew any semblance of a career in football would be in a non-playing role.
Mahtal had become somewhat of a polyglot as a youngster, picking up Spanish while watching LaLiga and then studying Portuguese. Those skills earned him a huge break when, at the age of 30, he became a translator for the Zambian national team. That saw him make some great contacts and meet some of his heroes, but the dream of becoming a Football Manager still lingered.
Four years into his time with Zambia, local side Nchanga Rangers agreed to take Mahtal on as a coach. While working at the club, he took the first step toward his dream by working hard for two years to earn his National C License. Armed with that, Mahtal stepped up to become Nchanga’s assistant manager but, in January 2023, with his 40th birthday looming in 18 months, Mahtal decided it was time to take a gamble. The Zambian packed his bags, bid farewell to his parents and seven siblings, and moved to Germany to explore the opportunity of managing in Europe.
The unemployed wannabe manager put together a CV and began circulating his name with club owners across Europe. He was happy to work anywhere in Europe, with the twist being he didn’t want to manage in Europe’s leading eight leagues (England, France, Italy, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Scotland, Spain) or Russia. As a result, Mahtal began his managerial career unemployed with the option of 62 leagues across 27 European nations.
Mahtal’s aim is to do a EuroTrip managing across the continent and showing very little loyalty in a bid to build his reputation. He had the pipedream of winning a few domestic trophies and wasn’t too bothered about being competitive in continental competitions.
Hunting For A First Club
Upon loading up Football Manager 2024, around 25 jobs were available, so Mahtal applied for all of them and hoped for a response. Three days later, he gladly attended a couple of interviews with Finland’s HIFK and Swedish side Sandviks IK and his phone was soon red-hot as he received seven more, including chatting with Nicolas Anelka at Ümraniyespor, over the next few days.
It didn’t take long to receive offers from HIFK, Nordvärmlands and Sandviks, which he delayed for a week. A couple of days later, Finnish top-flight side Honka made an offer, which felt like too big a step up especially considering they’d lost 14 out of 15 league games!, along with approaches from Ümraniyespor and Sweden’s VMA IK and Notvikens IK. He whittled down his options to Nordvärmlands, VMA IK and Notvikens IK. And eventually decided the most intriguing was to head to Sweden with VMA IK.
Who Are VMA IK?
Vånga Mjönäs Arkelstorp IK is an intriguing semi-professional football club based in the villages of Vånga, Mjönäs and Arkelstorp (which have a combined population of 1,024, 791 of which are in Arkelstorp) in the Kristianstad municipality of Skåne, the southernmost principality of Sweden. The club is technically an association formed when the three separate villages merged into a joint association in 2002. Intriguingly, in real life, VMA IK play their home games at two separate stadiums, Ädlavallen in Vånga during the spring and at Arkelstorp IP during the autumn, while youth activities take place in Mjönäs. But in-game, they play exclusively at Ädlavallen.
The club started out as a youth side in 1991 and didn’t establish a senior team until 2000 under the name Arkelstorps IF. VMA IK was formed in 2002 and the move brought rapid success, achieving three promotions in four years to reach Sweden’s third tier in 2005. However, that proved to be a false dawn as they tumbled down the leagues to hit a new low of tier eight in 2016. But they’ve since enjoyed a revival, surging back up the leagues to their current position in the fourth-tier Division 2 Södra Götaland.
A Tough Swedish Challenge
Mahtal joins with the club in a bit of a pickle, sitting 13th in the 14-team division with 11 points. However, the bottom of the league is very tight with VMA IK only trailing 10th-place Räppe GoIF by 3 points. But that means Mahtal has 12 games to avoid a relegation scrap.
To achieve that, Mahtal would be looking to star player Calle Nilsson, who’s actually got a 7.16 average rating so far this season. Other key players will be attacking midfielder Julian Grozdanovski, striker Elliot Blennborn, centre back Jonathan Nyström, midfielder Daniel Kardum, goalkeeper Max-Ludwig Gustafsson Roslund and young defender Oliver Andersson. And having assessed the players available, Mahtal initially opted for a fairly basic 4-4-2.
Starting Life As A Football Manager With A Huge Challenge
Mahtal began his career with a massive game as VMA IK entertained 12th-place Hässleholms IF, who they only trailed on goal difference. But the first game showed Mahtal just how big a challenge they faced, as they conceded inside 10 minutes, were very lucky to go 2-1 up through a penalty and an own goal, got battered for 40 minutes and eventually conceded after 87 minutes – but at least he started with a lucky point.
Another home game followed against 8th-place Österlen FF, which also started dreadfully but Blennborn levelled up after 10 minutes and they dominated the first half. The visitors grew into it but neither side could finish their chances and VMA were left ruing a missed opportunity. But annoyingly, Hässleholms somehow won 3-1 at 2nd-place Kristianstad to move two points clear of them.
Really helpfully, the squad got their knickers in a twist about “the lack of depth in the goalkeeping department.” Ironically, that’s the only position you don’t need any depth, and Mahtal couldn’t do anything about it given the board wouldn’t let him pay players more than a £5 appearance fee.
A bad situation got worse as the gap to 12th grew to three points when Hässleholms drew 3-3 at 11th-place Räppe GoIF while VMA lost 3-0 at 4th-place Rosengård. But VMA made a great start at home to 7th-place IFK Hässleholm (not to be confused with Hässleholms IF) as Grozdanovski headed home at the back post. They saw off a barrage then sealed Mahtal’s first-ever win and clean sheet through Blennborn’s late tap-in. Hässleholms got thumped 4-1 at Berga to take VMA level with them.
VMA had the Friday night clash in a trip to 11th-place Nosaby IF and struggled to get going then looked doomed to defeat when they conceded on 51 minutes. But Mahtal went attacking and two long balls up to Blennborn sent Nilsson through to score his first two goals of the new manager’s reign on 81 and 92 minutes. The next day, Hässleholms lost 2-0 at home to 9th-place Simrishamn, so VMA escaped to the relegation playoff place with seven games remaining.
Another Friday night game saw VMA again defy the odds as a late Anel Zgalj strike nicked a deserved point at 2nd-place Karlskrona. But Hässleholms hammered bottom-side FBK Balkan 4-0 to close the ga to one point, which, incidentally, was the same gap to 10th and 11th place. VMA’s luck ran out as a dreadful first-half performance led to a 2-0 loss at home to IFK Trelleborg before an unlucky 3-2 defeat at leaders Kristianstad while Hässleholms defeated IFK Malmö by the same scoreline. Suddenly, relegation looked like a significant possibility in what was technically an eight-way scrap, especially considering 7th-place Räppe GoIF’s tricky run-in.
Close Relegation Scrap
Game 1 – Räppe GoIF (7th, home): VMA saved their best performance yet for a must-win game. Blennborn’s header got things started before another Nilsson brace and Grozdanovski sealed a 4-1 win late on. Hässleholms won yet again and Nosaby somehow beat Berga, but Malmö and Österlen lost so VMA now only trailed 10th-place Malmö by three points.
Game 2 – IFK Berga (2nd, away): VMA had no such joy against Berga, suffering an unlucky 2-0 defeat after having 13 shots to 4 and 1.94 xG to 1.33. Nosaby won at Simrishamn but Malmö drew at home to Österlen to retain some hope of survival going into the final two games.
Game 3 – IFK Simrishanm (6th): Simrishanm seemed to be losing to all the other strugglers, so Mahtal was hoping for a favour. And he kind of got one as both teams were awful in a dire 0-0. Nosaby only drew with relegated Balkan and Österlen for a 2-2 with 3rd-place Karlskrona, which left VMA 3 points behind Österlen and Malmö with a worse goal difference on the final day.
Game 4 – FBK Balkan (14th, away): VMA visited Balkan the day before Österlen hosted 5th-place Rosengård and Nosaby visited Hässleholms IF, which was odd. VMA were handed a huge chance as right back Melker Lundin won a penalty on 8 minutes and… Nilsson converted. Holmquist doubled the lead with a sumptuous strike on the verge of half time to have them looking comfortable. Mahtal wanted more goals but they were terrible in the second half and gifted Balkan a penalty of their own. That gave VMA a chance of survival, they just needed Malmö to lose and Österlen to lose heavily.
They got half of that wish as Malmö lost 2-0 but Österlen only lost 1-0. As a result, VMA finished in 12th place, sending Malmö into Division 3 by 5 goals and missing out on survival by 4 goals.
Therefore, VMA went into the strange Division 2 / Division 3 Playoff system. However… Mahtal wasn’t there to try and secure their survival! That was because his efforts at VMA caught the eye as third-tier Turkish side Ískenderunspor offered an interview then a job worth £250 per week, compared to his current £15. They also had a £7k wage budget and £30k transfer budget compared to £152 and £0. So that was obviously a no-brainer even for a manager with some semblance of loyalty, which Mahtal did not have. The Turkish side agreed to wait until the end of the Swedish season, which was the day after they played Balkan, and fund his National B license. So we’ll be off to Turkey in Part 2!
VMA didn’t hold too much of a grudge against Mahtal and kindly sent him a private stream to watch his former club visit Färjestad in the playoff. And he was cheering along with the VMA supporters as Grozdanovski and Blennborn strikes earned a 2-1 victory to confirm survival.
Could Mahtal achieve great things in Turkish tier three? Join us next Friday to find out!
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