After two years in Ghana, Trebor Mahtal wrapped up his time at Asante Kotoko by lifting the club’s 32nd league title. Now with a regional reputation and improved attributes, the Zambian manager went in search of his sixth job in management at the end of May 2033.
He ambitiously applied for jobs in Morocco, which was instantly rejected, and South Africa, where he was soon offered an interview. That went very well, as the club offered him the job just 5 days later, handing Mahtal a very different challenge to his previous roles.
Who Are Cape Town City?
Cape Town City, also known as Kaapstad Sokkerklub in Afrikaans, is a professioal club based in the capital city of South Africa. The club was first founded in 1960 but dissolved in 1977, before being reformed in 2016. It was refounded by former professional footballer, businessman and previously co-founder of Ajax Cape Town, John Comitis, who purchased the franchise rights of the defunct Mpumalanga Black Aces and relocated it to Cape Town. City were relegated from the South African top tier in 2025 and, after a strong spell up in the Premiership through this save, including finishing 3rd in 2028, they got relegated in 2032 and only finished 8th in the second tier GladAfrica Championship in 2033 – after only winning one of their last 11 games from early March.
Cape Town City play at the probably unnecessarily large 64,100-capacity Cape Town Stadium, which was built in 2009. That;s supported by good training facilities, adequate youth facilities and academy coaching and above average youth recruitment. The club is in a real state financially, sitting £735k in the red and somehow spending £6k over a £25k weekly wage budget.
Those concerns were allayed slightly in Mahtal’s third day in charge as his new board accepted dominant South African champions Mamelodi Sundowns’ £250k bid for Timothy Mayambela and sent him back on loan. Mahtal also allowed 7 players to depart on free transfers and sold 8 more players for £300k, which more than halved the club’s wage spending.
The wage budget was suddenly slashed to £17k so, despite his good transfer work, Mahtal could barely afford to bring in any new players. So instead, he chose to focus on the club’s promising youngsters. The excellent Mayambela is their best player, along with attacking midfielder Xolani Raphadu, right back Xhosa Manyana, centre backs Lakham Gqongo and Nkosi Bhengu, goalkeeper Luca Diana-Oliaro, midfielders Jerry Masinga and Joshua Taylor and left back Jaydon Temmers. But there was plenty of promise in attackers Nhlakanipho Booysen and Andrew Malada, who were promoted to the first team, wingers Itumuleng Molefe, Sisa Du Toit and Jared Vilakazi and defender Thato Mtsweni.
The players available felt best suited to a fairly standard 4-2-3-1, with Raphadu the main man alongside Mayambela and Malada, who was yet to make his senior debut, handed a huge opportunity to lead the line.
Ropey Start Forces a Tactical Switch
Cape Town City were second favourites to win the Glad Africa Championship with title odds of 5/4. The brilliantly named Hungry Lions were 1/3 favourites, with other contenders including NB La Masia (9/2), Stellenbosch FC (13/2), Mbombela United and Venda FC (9/1), Highbury FC (13/1) and Cape Town Spurs (14/1).
Life in South Africa began with both midfielders missing, which forced Booysen to make a first senior start in a new role. But they started well as Raphadu scored inside 4 minutes, before Temmers and sub striker Daniel Thompson secured a 3-1 win over Golden Arrows. A few days later, Malada scored his first senior goal only for the defence and goalkeeper to let him down in a disappointing 3-1 loss at Milford FC, before tiredness forced a heavily rotated team that did well to draw 2-2 at home to Venda led by 16-year-old winger Wayne Mkhabela scoring on his debut. And a challenging start continued as Raphadu rescued a point late on at La Masia.
Mahtal wasn’t impressed and ripped up the 4-2-3-1, switching to more of a 4-5-1 with Bhengu as a holding midfielder dropping into defence and Raphadu dropping back into midfield out of possession. That approached looked a lot better as an early Malada strike and a Du Toit brace earned a 3-1 win over Orbit College, which was backed up by Raphadu scoring the only goal at Mbombela.
That return to form was timely ahead of a trip to city rivals Cape Town Spurs, and a solid display was rewarded with a late Thompson volley. Malada and Manyana braces earned a 5-0 thumping of bottom of the league Upington City before a huge trip to still unbeaten Hungry Lions, where the outstanding Malada bagged a brilliant hat trick in a 4-1 domination that took CTC top of the league for the first time.
That big victory was part of a new club record 11-game winning streak as CTC began to tighten their grip on South Africa’s second tier, including a superb Du Toit hat trick leading a 5-1 away victory at Kruger United. That took them into a six-week break with a 2-point lead over La Masia, with both teams only losing once at the 15-game halfway mark of the season. Mahtal used that off period as an opportunity to ask the board to go on a coaching course and, having rejected it during the hiring process, they agreed to fund his Continental B license.
Mahtal Takes Action Against Board Intervention
However, the manager was less happy when January came around and South Africa’s big sides began bidding wars on all his best youngsters. The board eventually went over his head to accept a nonsense £115k bid for Du Toit from Sundowns, which only guaranteed £51k up front. Two weeks later, they did exactly the same with a Sundowns offer of £78k for Malada and a £40k Kaizer Chiefs bid for Vilakazi. And, having protested the Du Toit offer to no avail, Mahtal felt he had no choice but to stand down from an untenable role in which his best players were essentially being thrown away for free and the finances were a bit of a disaster.
Mahtal swiftly applied for a few vacancies, only to be rejected by a top-tier South African side, several Egyptian clubs and teams in Morocco and Nigeria. Just as he was beginning to get concerned, an interview offer came from Senegal. And it went well enough for Mahtal to find himself back in employment on 25 March 2033.
Starting a Second Job in 9 Months!
Diambars FC de Saly is a football academy based in Saly, a major tourist destination and seaside resort on the Petite Côte south of the capital Dakar. The academy was started by former France footballer Patrick Vieira in 2003, and has produced players like Idrissa Gana Gueye. It started out in Senegal’s regional championships before turning professional in 2009 before swiftly reaching the top-tier Ligue 1 in 2011. Two years later, Diambars miraculously won their only Senegalese title to date.
Fast-forward 21 years, the club, which is predicted to finish 7th with title odds of 50/1, sits 9th in Ligue 1 on 26 points, 12 points behind leaders Jamono FC (a massive 100/1 to win the league) and only 9 points above the relegation zone after 20 of 30 league games. However, they are above title favourites, back-to-back champions and wonderkid factory Génération Foot (who are 1/3 for the title) and Casa Sports. But, unsurprisingly, the club isn’t in a great place financially, sitting £400k in the debt and spending £100 over a £6k weekly wage budget that would need to be rectified in the summer ahead.
Mahtal inherits a side that looks fairly strong but has a mass of exciting talent, including 17 players with at least 4.5-star potential. The most exciting talents are 18-year-old centre back Ababacar N’Diaye, who’s out on loan, and striker Christian Touré, 17-year-old goalkeeper Barthélémy Traoré and attackers Mohamed Mendy and Adama N’Diaye, and recent youth intake star 15-year-old striker Ousseynou Senghor. For now, the best players were centre back Ablaye Faye, winger Doudou Diouf, midfielder Bara Sapoko Ndiaye and attackers Mouhamed Wagne and 6ft 5in Bassirou Thioune. And the players available seemed to suit a fairly offensive 4-2-4 approach.
Mahtal’s time at his 7th club in 7 countries began at home to relegation-battling Pikine. It started with a bang as Wagne scored inside 30 seconds, and they held on to win 1-0. Next up was a trip to surprise package Jamono and a poor second half effort saw them lose 4-2. 17-year-old Adama scored his first senior goal in a 3-2 win over Linguére before Thioune earned 1-0 wins at 6th-place Ouakam and at home to 11th-place Rufisque. Going into the final 5 games, Diambars had climbed to 8th and well clear of any relegation concerns, but only 4 points separated 4th from 10th.
For the third game in a row, Thioune nicked an impressive 1-0 at Casa Sports before a thrilling 3-2 win over Stade de Mbour moved them within just 4 points of the leaders with 3 games remaining. Surely they couldn’t?! No, they couldn’t, as a 3-2 defeat at Oslo FA and a 2-1 loss at home to Génération Foot saw them finish in 8th. That said, they still only finshed 9 points behind first-time champions Oslo FA.
Tumultuous Season Comes to a Drab End
Against all the odds, Diambars actually had a shot at winning the title – and would have been champions if they’d won all of their last three games. So, while Mahtal was a little taken aback by the dramatic events in South Africa, he was hopeful of a good season in his first campaign in Senegal. There was plenty of potential to work with, along with striker Thioune, who scored 16 in 25, but the first team needed a good clearout.
But could Mahtal help Diambars compete at the top of Senegalese football? Join us on Friday to find out!
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