Earlier today, we explained how the Alphabet Challenge will work in our introductory post, which ran through the objectives of the save and how it’s going to work. Read Part 1 here to catch up.
Growing up in the streets of Mazabuka, in southern Zambia, football dominated the daily activities of Trebor Mahtal and his friends. His little group of pals would kick pine cones around his primary school playground, upgraded to ‘penny floater’ and sponge balls in high school, before playing before their school and local sides. When they weren’t playing football, the sports-obsessed youngsters piled into Trebor’s father’s grocery store to watch grainy images of their icons, including the likes of David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane, Alessandro Del Piero, Paolo Maldini, Wayne Rooney, Andriy Shevchenko, Ronaldo, Kaká and co on dodgy TV streams.
Mahtal and his best friend Davis Mwale knew that, realistically, they had no chance of emulating their Zambian heroes Zeddy Saileti and Modon Malitoli by making it as professional footballers. However, they committed to studying the beautiful game and, they believed, they knew the tactical side of football inside out. Davies always encouraged Mahtal to put his knowledge to use, and a young Trebor humoured him by coaching local youth teams – and even getting a chance to run coaching sessions with Zambia’s Under 23s as he completed his National C Licence.
Having completed the course, Davies encouraged his friend to push his talents further, leave Zambia and start living out their dreams of becoming Football Managers. So, on his 39th birthday, 14 May 2023, Trebor Mahtal departed Zambia for the first time, bound on a flight to Germany. He stayed with a local family in Berlin, studied a few European languages and watched as much football as possible from all over the world. And a year later, on his 40th birthday, Mahtal felt comfortable to began searching for his big break in football management.
Finding Mahtal’s First Club
Mahtal’s first mission was to find a club to start his adventure. And a reminder of the nations available to find a first club from:
Australia, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Finland, Gibraltar, Hong Kong, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Malaysia, Mexico, Northern Ireland, Norway, Peru, Poland, Republic of Ireland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, Uruguay and Wales.
In early June 2024, a few opportunities were available and Mahtal was quickly invited to an interview by Latvian club Super Nova. The interview seemed to go really well and so it proved as, just two days later, the club asked him for staff changes and offered him the job another day later. So Trebor Mahtal was heading for Latvia to begin his Football Manager career, signing a one-year deal on £750 per week.
Who Are SK Super Nova?
SK Super Nova Salaspils is a professional football club that’s technically based in the Latvian capital Riga but currently plays in Salaspils. The club was founded in August 2000, forming out of Riga Secondary School No. 62 in Kengarags, which had previously competed in the Latvian youth championships, and effectively started life as an academy team.
Super Nova only entered the Latvian football league in 2017, competing in the Latvian Second League, and genuinely played on a high school’s football pitch. However, it won the league to gain immediate promotion to Latvia’s second tier, which saw it move to the Olaine City Stadium in Vidzeme. The club reached the promotion rounds in its first two seasons, then earned promotion to the top-tier Virslīga for the first time in 2022. That saw the club temporarily move to Salaspils Stadions in Salaspils, hence the name, and was relegated in real life in 2023.
Mahtal didn’t bother looking at where Super Nova were in the league before accepting the job. But he probably should have. The real-life relegation looks highly likely to be replicated virtually as Super Nova are firmly bottom of the league with just 8 points from 17 games. The club has lost all nine away games but won two and drawn two of its eight at home. As a result, it trails fierce rivals BFC by 1 point and 8th place Grobinas by 8 points with 19 games remaining. Finishing bottom of the league will result in relegation and an immediate sacking. But finishing 9th would lead to a relegation playoff and 8th place would secure survival.
The best players at Super Nova are all defenders in centre backs Marcis Oss and Rwandan Dylan Maes and left back Bilaly Diallo. Other key players are winger Heythem Kerbache, 61-time capped 37-year-old midfielder Olegs Laizans, promising wingers Lasha Odiasharia and Daniil Rudenko, midfielder Andris Krusatins, Japanese midfielder Ryuga Nakamura and 6ft 6in striker Markuss Kruglauzs, aka The Krug.
Mahtal quickly assessed the players available and cooked up a pretty basic 4-3-3 that built around big man The Krug and their relatively decent wide men. And he ambitiously told the players he expected them to help him secure Virslīga survival, which they unanimously agreed with.
Home Games Aplenty As Mahtal Starts His Career In Latvia
The bookies had Super Nova down to finish 8th in Virslīga at 150/1 for the title, compared to huge relegation favourites BFC and FK Tukunms 2000/Telems (500/1 and 1000/1). So there was some hope.
Mahtal had two weeks to bed himself into life in Latvia, but his first match as a Football Manager was a huge one as Super Nova entertained 8th-place Grobinas. His first half of management wasn’t great as his side had two shots and the visitors had zero. But the 340 Super Nova fans soon had reason to celebrate as Oss headed home a near-post corner. Ten minutes later, Kerbache was fouled in the box and stepped up to slam the penalty into the top corner, only for Grobinas to score their first shot from 30 years. That ended any semblance of attacking activity and Mahtal cruised to a career-opening win, which saw Super Nova climboff the bottom of the league for the first time in 10 weeks as BFC lost 2-0.
Three days later, another massive home game saw 7th-place Tukums come to town. Super Nova started brightly and nudged in front as Kerbache swept home a loose ball. Krusatins swiftly got himself idiotically sent off a minute, only for Odisharia to fly down the right and cross for The Krug to double the lead. And unbelievably, eight minutes later, the winger headed home Diallo’s deep cross. Super Nova led 3-0 at halftime without the visitors even getting a shot on target but, all too predictably, they scored their first with 15 minutes remaining. But Super Nova again held firm to claim a huge 3-1 victory.
Those huge results saw Super Nova double their win tally for the campaign and move 5 points clear of BFC and 2 behind Grobinas. Mahtal’s side pulled off a surprise cup win, beating 4th-place Valmiera 2-1, before his third league game was also at home to 6th-place Metta. Super Nova toook their new-found form into this game as Odisharia headed home at the backpost on 22 minutes. Metta were far the better team but Super Nova defended heroically, then struck twice in a minute with two more headers by Odishaira and The Krug to earn a hugely undeserved 3-1 win. Grobinas lost again, which meant that, miraculously, after three games in charge, Mahtal had lifted Super Nova out of the relegation places.
FM regained some karma by injuring goalkeeper Rudolfs Soloha for six weeks, which wasn’t ideal as Super Nova now faced three really tough away games. First up, they went to Valmiera and took a surprise lead as Laizans headed in from a freekick. They dominated the game and missed chances, but eventually made another count as winger Bruno Melnis scored yet another header just after the hour mark. Valmiera piled the pressure on but The Krug relieved it as, thanks to some terrible defending, he used all of his 9 pace to latch onto stand-in goalkeeper Edvards Sipicins’ goal kick and smashed home a third.
A week later, they headed to 4th-place Liepaja, where the new manager bounce ended with a slightly unlucky 3-0 defeat. Next up was a trip to title-fighting Auda, who were shocked by Odisharia’s stunning Van Basten-esque volley on 14 minutes. However, they were quickly gifted a response through a needless penalty. Auda bossed the second half but Super Nova held firm and secured an impressive point.
BFC somehow won two successive games out of nowhere, to climb to within 3 points of their rivals with 13 games remaining – and Super Nova had to face the bottom two away in their next four league games.
Mahtal was beyond delighted with the start of his managerial career – winning his first four matches before securing a point at the leaders. Super Nova had some huge games coming up that would decide whether Mahtal’s first role would come to a premature ending.
We’ll be back with Part 3 of the Alphabet Challenge on Wednesday at 11am to discover whether Mahtal’s new manager bounce could continue through the remainder of the season in Latvia!
Football Manager Addict 