Trebor Mahtal had a big decision to make at the start of July 2041 as, having strengthened a promising CS Sfaxien side, he was approached by South African giants Mamelodi Sundowns. So would he show some loyalty or go chasing a more sizeable pay cheque?
Realistically, even with the solid additions he’d made, Sfaxien weren’t close to competing with Espérance Tunis. So Mahtal decided this was the right time to head back to South Africa, and signed a 2-year deal on £2,500 per week.
Who Are Mamelodi Sundowns?
Mamelodi Sundowns FC is a professional football club based in Mamelodi, a township northeast of Pretoria, which is the executive capital of South Africa (which, interestingly, has three capital cities across its government branches). Sundowns was founded in 1970 and, in the half decade since, has become one of the most successful clubs in African football, winning 18 domestic titles in real life and adding 13 more – and all but 4 titles in 2028, 2031 and 2041 – during this save. The club won its first Champions League in 2016 and became the inaugural winners of the African Football League in 2023, and added 2 Champions Leagues in 2031 and 2032.
Sundowns play at the 51,762-capacity Loftus Versfeld, which was built in 1906 and rebuilt in 1977 and is supported by excellent training facilities, great youth facilities, exceptional youth recruitment and good academy coaching. Unusually, Mahtal walked into a club with decent finances, as there was £2.5m in the bank, £977k available to spend and £61k spare in a £170k weekly wage budget. However, a week after his appointment, that was boosted by receiving £7m for playing at the Club World Cup earlier in the summer, in which they’d only lost 3-2 to Real Madrid before a 3-0 loss to Liverpool. So Mahtal found himself in the rare circumstances of being cash rich in Africa, but without any of that competition bonus being added to his transfer budget.
Upon meeting the players for the first time, Mahtal immediately knew he’d made the right decision. The best player at Sundowns was his former Cape Town City winger Timothy Mayembela, along with left winger Sephathathi Makhetha, defender Joseph Walters, exciting midfielder Mike Motloung, who was wanted by Porto and Benfica but was swiftly locked down to a new contract, and holding midfielder Vuyolwethu Magugwana. Other players to look out for are brilliantly named striker Thabang Badboy, left back Thando Nel, 6ft 4in midfielder Xolani Ntshangase, promising striker Isaac Daniels, who Mahtal had been tracking for a while, midfielder Xolani Ntshangase and winger Lisema Secker.
However, they lost their star defender to Saudi for a criminally low release fee of £550k and their other best centre back decided he wanted a new challenge. So Mahtal moved swiftly to bring in another familiar face, bringing his former Pyramids centre back Welcome De Kock back to South Africa for up to £3m on a massive wage.
Mahtal decided to take a relatively attacking approach, deploying a 4-2-4 with Badboy and Manganyi up top, Makhetha and Mayambela on the flanks and Motloung given the starting role as the midfield playmaker.
Mahtal Returns to South Africa
Sundowns were huge Evens favourites to win the South African Premier Division, followed by Orlando Pirates (13/5), Kaizer Chiefs (5/1), Hungr Lions (18/1) and Highbury FC (33/1), with Mahtal’s former club Cape Town City predicted to finish 12th at 250/1 for the title.
Mahtal kicked off by thrashing Chippa United 5-0 away led by a Badboy brace and De Kock scoring on his return home. Badboy, Magugwana and Manganyi earned a 3-0 win at home to Polokwane City before a disappointing 0-0 at Hungry Lions. The defensive solidity prevailed with a 3-0 win at home to TS Galaxy before finally conceding as Motloung inspired a 3-1 success at Casric Stars. Sundowns continued to dominate, heading into a month-long break leading Orlando on goal difference with a game in hand. Mahtal added more familiar faces in January, re-signing centre back Omer Osman and full back David Portocarrero, who the board bizarrely rated as an F signing, from Sfaxien for £400k and £750k.
That duo had underwhelming debuts as Sundowns began 2042 with their first league defeat, 2-0 at home to Kaizer Chiefs. They recovered in style as a Badboy brace sealed a 5-1 win at Milford before welcoming 2nd place Orlando Pirates and being held to a 0-0. However, a 4-1 win over Mahtal’s former club Cape Town City and a 6-1 demolition of Loftus Versfeld sent them onto another strong run that took them top of the league by 1 point with 2 games in hand and 10 games remaining. A massive game took Sundowns to Kaizer Cheifs and a brilliant display saw Mayambela score twice before a rare Nel double secured a 4-1 that virtually locked down the title.
Badboy’s strike earned a point at Orlando, leaving Sundowns 4 points clear with 4 games remaining and 2 still in hand. Despite conceding after 25 seconds at home to The Bees, Sundowns came firing back against 10 men and a dominant performance saw Portocarrero and Motloung score one and make one in a 4-1 win to secure the league title.
Mamelodi Sundowns were once again Champions of South Africa!
Sundowns went on to win the league by 4 points, finishing on 72 points after 23 wins, 3 draws and 4 defeats, with a new league record 77 goals and 21 conceded, which was bettered by Orlando’s 14. Badboy was the top scorer with 17 in 27 followed by Makhetha in 4th with 13 in 26 and Manganyi led the assists with 11.
Sundowns also cruised into the Telkom Knockout Final courtesy of a 4-0 win at Mahtal’s former side Cape Town City. They faced Polokwane in the Final and Manganyi, Walters and Maketha earned a 3-1 victory for Mahtal’s first silverware in South Africa and just his second domestic cup success after the Coupe de Cote d’Ivoire win 14 years ago. They also eased into the final of the Nedbank Cup and, after a dull 0-0, won the penalty shootout 4-2 to wrap up a domestic treble.
Wide Open Champions League Draw
Mahtal’s Sundowns reign began with the Champions League preliminary round. Badboy scored twice in a 4-1 win at home to TP Mazembe, before a rotated side drew 2-2 in DR Congo to ease into the first round. Next up was Nigerian champions Remo Stars, and a 1-1 in Nigeria before edging a crazy second leg 5-4. Bizarrely, the winners of the last three Champions Leagues didn’t even qualify for the group stage as Pyramids didn’t make continental football and Zamalek somehow lost to Hearts of Oak!
The group stage saw Sundowns drawn alongside Mahtal’s former Ghanaian side Asante Kotoko, Nigeria’s Enugu Rangers and ZED of Egypt. The group began with a trip to Egypt and goals by the strikeforce of Manganyi and Badboy earned a 2-1 win, in which Mayambela suffered a torn calf, before an early Daniels double led a 5-0 home hammering of Asante. Ludicrously, 11 players were on international duty for the trip to Nigeria and they lost 4-1, before sealing qualification with a 4-1 win in Ghana and the group by beating ZED 1-0.
They lost 2-1 at Ahli Tripoli in the quarter final first leg, but Manganyi, Motloung and Mayambela earned a comfortable 3-1 home win. A bizarre semi final lineup saw Sundowns face Morocco’s RS Berkane while Namungo of Tanzania took on Enugu Rangers. Sundowns took full control as Motloung inspired a 3-1 win in Morocco then scored twice in the home leg to secure a 3-0 victory to send his side into the final.
An intriguing final saw them face Enugu Rangers, who they’d beaten 3-0 and lost 4-1 with a weakened team in the group stage. The first leg was at home and Sundowns came out flying with four shots in the first five minutes, before Maketha sent Badboy in for the opener and scored a superb solo goal a minute later. They continued to dominate and Badboy doubled his tally with a powerful close-range finish just before halftime, wrapped up his hat trick with a delicious volley 10 minutes after the break and superbly volleyed in his fourth on 76 minutes. They took a surely unassailable 5-0 lead to Nigeria a week later with a first team fully rested for the 2 league games helpfully arranged between the two legs. And they obviously went and conceded Enugu’s first attack after 90 seconds. Motloung drilled home from 20 yards to remove any concerns before conceding Enugu’s second shot on target, and they settled for a 2-1 defeat that secured a 6-2 aggregate success.
Mamelodi Sundowns won the African Champions League for the fourth time and first time in 10 years!
Mahtal Celebrates Quadruple Glory
Mamelodi Sundowns swept aside all competition as they celebrated a famous quadruple of the South African Premier Division, Telkom Knockout, Nedbank Cup and African Champions League. That saw Mahtal becoe African champion for the second time, adding the South African title to those won in Zambia, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Benin, Ghana, Senegal, Morocco and Egypt.
Badboy led the way with 28 goals and 14 assists in 49 games, along with Makehetha on 24 goals and 14 assists and Manganyi with 18 goals and 19 assists. But the star of the season was arguably Motloung, who scored 26 with 15 assists from central midfield. Nel and Daniels both scored 10 while Mayambela racked up 18 assists.
Having well and truly completed South Africa, was this the end of the road for Mahtal? Or might there just be time for him to take on one more club in his African Adventure? He stood down as Sundowns manager and didn’t immediately see any particularly exciting jobs, but gave it a bit of time to see if anything interesting came up. However, by the time August came around, nothing materialised. So that’s where we’ll leave this story and FM26.
Mahtal finishes his 17-year career as the 9th-best manager in African history and by far the best-ever Zambian manager. He won 11 league titles with three domestic cups and four continental trophies.
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