Our Football Manager 26 saves to date have predominantly focused on youth development and one-club saves, having started out with a journey through women’s football in our Trailblazer save. However, after our latest Wonderkid Factory save was curtailed by a hard drive issue, I fancied taking on a brand new journeyman series that traverses a path previously untravelled.
There are 56 countries in Africa, but Football Manager still only allows us to manage in two of those – South Africa and Egypt, which was only added for FM26. So we took to FM Scout and unearthed a doozy of a custom database created by MasterIgor, which unlocked a massive 72 leagues across all 56 African nations. This new save, which should see us through to the end of the FM26 lifecycle, takes us on an ambitious mission to win as many league titles across different African nations and win the CAF Champions League.
There’s only one man to help us embark on this adventure, Zambian manager Trebor Mahtal, who steps up from a career in youth football to try his hand in the senior game. Mahtal begins with a National A licence and minimal playing experience, and sets out as an untested unemployed manager. And, with a mass of vacancies upon starting the game, he quickly set about searching for his first opportunity in football.
Upon launching his career on 7 July 2025, Mahtal applied for five vacancies at clubs with local reputation. Six days later, he received his first invitation to an interview with Kabwe Warriors in his homeland, which he thought went pretty well. Another day later, he was offered five more interviews by Nkwazi and Forest Rangers and FC Muza of Zambia, Fath Riadi Nador of Morocco and Cameroon’s Fauve Azur, followed by a few more interviews in Cameroon and Morocco and one with TMA Stars FC in Tanzania.
That resulted in a flurry of job offers, of which he instantly rejected any amateur clubs and delayed several more. However, easily the best offer on the table would keep in his homeland, as he was approached by the favourites for Zambia’s top tier Super Division, which is ranked as the 26th best league in Africa. Mahtal signed a £300 per week contract to move to Ndola with Zesco United, and an opportunity that was probably beyond where he expected to land in his first ever managerial role.
Who Are Zesco United?
Zesco United is a professional club based in Ndola, the third largest city in Zambia with around 630,000 residents that is the commercial centre of Zambia’s copper-mining Copperbelt region located just 6 miles from the border with DR Congo. The club is owned, named after and sponsored by Zambia’s state-owned electricity supplier ZESCO, which produces around 80% of the country’s electricity. It also plays at Zambia’s first modern football stadium, the 49,800-capacity Levy Mwanawasa Stadium. And the club has three major rivalries in the Ndola Derby with Forest Rangers, the Copperbelt Derby with Nkana and the brilliantly named Electricity Derby with Power Dynamos.
Zesco United was founded in 1974 and, after a quiet few decades, won its first domestic title in 2007. It’s added 8 more titles since, most recently in 2001, and became the first Zambian side to qualify for the CAF Champions League group stage in 2009, going on to reach the semi finals for the first time in 2016. However, in real life, the club was suspended from the Zambian top tier, after objecting to disqualification from the domestic cup.
Mahtal joins a club with £336k in the bank, a £31k transfer budget and spending £500 over a £10k weekly wage budget. Another major challenge was the league only allowing 5 foreign players to be registered, while the squad had 9 foreigners. His first task was to address those shortcomings, selling off X players for around £10k to free up £2k in wages.
The best players remaining were goalkeeper Victor Sochima, attacking midfielders Kelvin Kampamba, Abraham Siankombo and Sibiri Sanou, loanee right back Benedict Chepeshi, 33-year-old striker Alex Ngonga and centre back Kabaso Chongo.
Having assessed the team, Mahtal opted for a 4-4-1-1 approach that focused on getting the ball wide with short passing built around playmaker Kampamba.
Mahtal’s African Adventure Begins in Zambia
Mahtal’s career began with a cup final in the Charity Shield against reigning champions Power Dynamos. However, a team woefully lacking in match sharpness never got going and lost 1-0 to a 58th minute headed goal.
Mahtal’s board was expecting their rookie manager to lift the Zambian title and the bookies agreed, making Zesco huge 1/2 favourites, followed by Power Dynamos (11/2), Red Arrows (12/1), Green Eagles (20/1) and Nkana and Zanaco (33/1).
His league debut was another rivalry clash at home to Nkana, and a much improved performance saw early Ngonga and Sanou strikes earn a 2-0 victory. A late goal denied them victory at FC Muza but another solid home effort led to a 3-0 win over FC Leopards before Ngonga’s brace secured a 2-0 success at Red Arrows. But the good start came to an end with a disappointing 2-1 loss at Nchanga Rangers. They bounced back with Ngonga, Siankombo and Kampamba scoring in a 4-0 domination of Kabwe, before Kampamba’s goal was enough for a vital 1-0 Electricity Derby victory at Power Dynamos. A 2-0 win at Zanaco took Zesco top of Super Division for the first time after 13 games, and they took a 4-point lead into a six-week break.
Continental Qualification
In addition to the league campaign, Mahtal also made his continental debut as Zesco entered the preliminary round of the CAF Confederation Cup, Africa’s secondary continental tournament. They began in style as Ngonga’s brace led a 3-1 win at home to Nairobi United before he scored the only goal in Kenya. Next up, in the first round, they took on Ferrioviário de Maputo and Siankombo, Ngonga and a late Kampamba strike earned a 3-2 win in Mozambique before a 1-1 at home eased them through to the group stage.
Now things got tough as they took on South Africa giants Kaizer Chiefs, Libya’s Al-Ittihad Tripoli and Abia Warriors from Nigeria. They began with the trickiest test away to Kaizer Chiefs and put up a really strong fight to draw 1-1 thanks to Kampamba’s equaliser. However, they lost to Al-Ittihad 3-1 at home and 3-0 away, but Kampamba’s two assists inspired a 3-1 win at home to Abia and he scored the only goal in an impressive win over Kaizer Chiefs. That left them in 2nd place, level on points with the Chiefs heading into the final game, and a nervy 0-0 at Abia was enough to claim 2nd place as the Chiefs lost 2-1 in Libya.
That sent Zesco into the quarter finals against Senegalese wonderkid factory Génération Foot. Midfielder Gift Mphande’s late goal earned a 2-2 in Senegal, before a 1-1 at home was enough to progress on away goals. That teed up a tricky semi final with Egypt’s Zamalek, but they started the away leg well as Kampamba volleyed in after 5 minutes. However, the Egyptians dominated and won 2-1 and booked their place in the Confederation Cup Final with a 1-0 win in Zambia. But Zesco’s run to the semis saw them earn £555k, instantly doubling the club’s bank balance.
Zesco Chase Zambian Title
The league campaign resumed with a rusty 1-1 at home to FC Muza before an Ngonga brace led a 4-1 thrashing of Nkana and a disappointing 1-0 loss at FC Leopards. That reduced the gap at the top to 1 point, with Zesco and Zanaco very much in a two-way title race with a 13-point gap back to Nchanga Rangers. A 0-0 at home to Power Dynamos gave Zanaco a chance to go top, but they blew it as a 2-1 loss at Red Arrows ended their 10-game unbeaten streak. Both teams continued their good form through to a huge game as Zesco hosted Zanaco on 5 April, and a snoozefest of a 0-0 maintained Zesco’s 2-point lead with 4 games remaining.
Zesco improved to win 3-0 at Mutondo Stars while Zanaco lost 3-1 at home to Power Dynamos, extending their lead to 5 points. They immediately blew that advantage by losing 1-0 at Konkola Blades a few days after the exit to Zamalek, while Zanaco played won twice in a week to close the gap to 1 point. However, Zesco just needed to win one of their final two games to claim the league title. The first chance to achieve that was at home to NAPSA Stars, and they started on the front foot, creating a handful of chances before Ngonga turned in Siankombo’s cross after 21 minutes. The visitors had a man sent off for a shocking two-footer and Zesco continued to dominate but missed even more chances. But a 1-0 win was enough to secure the Zambian title.
Mahtal lifted his first trophy in his very first season as a manager as Zesco United won the Zambian Super Division!
Zesco went on to win the league by 4 points, finishing with 78 points after 24 wins, 6 draws and 3 defeats, scoring a league-high 64 and only conceding an impressive 15. Ngonga was the top scorer with 24 in 34, with Kampamba 8th with 11 in 34, Siankombo got the 2nd-most assists with 11, Kampamba made 34 key passes more than anyone else (115) and Sochima led the way with 20 clean sheets.
Mahtal Tastes Success in His First Season!
Mahtal was a little surprised at achieving so much success as an inexperienced manager, as the team performed well in continental football and went on to win the Zambian title. Ngonga top scored with 29 goals in 49 games, but Kampamba was the star man with 15 goals, 13 assists and a 7.16 rating and Siankombo impressed with 16 assists and 9 goals.
However, having tasted success in his homeland, it was time for Mahtal to seek out a new challenge. And he was fairly certain he wouldn’t be lucky enough to make it successive league titles in different countries!
But where would he end up on the second leg of his African adventure? Join us on Wednesday to find out!
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