“It is one of the oldest teams with decades of experience and history in local football,” said Donald Makgopa, the chairman of Score Hunters FC. “My late father Silas Makgopa formed the team in the early 70s. Currently, it is under my leadership, and I managed to bring a lot of change by ensuring that the team forms part of one of the major leagues in the Mopani region,” he said.
“We consist of 33 players between 18- and 30-years old hailing from the Limpopo area and Gauteng. “Ever since the establishment of the team, it is the first time we participated in a professional league, season 2023/2024. “We emerged the champions of our stream which tells our supporters and fans that we were there to compete and win it,” said Makgopa.
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They played in the playoffs on Saturday, June 22 at Lulekani Stadium, where the champions of the various streams locked horns. He said that as for tournaments, they participated in a couple of tournaments including one of their own, the Silas Makgopa Annual Tournament, with the idea to honour the founder of the team. “We also participated in the Nkatjis Top 32 where we saw ourselves in the finals with the giant Tzaneen United FC. As runners-up, we won R25 000.”
“We again participated in Dukes Annual Tournament Top 32 in December, where we were eliminated in the last 8 by Babanana on penalties,” he added. “We plan to firstly develop our local young players within Maruleng as a whole to become professional footballers, and secondly to be promoted to bigger leagues like NFD and DStv.
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“Our outstanding players are Kobo Chuene (Sthunya Sa Thembise), Easy, Evans, Jacob (Shebe), and many more, the list is endless. “The unique thing about the team is that we are running the team professionally at an early stage compared to other teams on our level, the winning culture, and the style of football we are playing around Maruleng,” he concluded.
