Mokwena thanks Zungu for choosing Sundowns over other clubs

“Welcome back Bongani Zungu, I want to give huge congratulations to the club for a lot of hard work behind the scenes. It was a complicated deal with a lot of issues.”

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Those are the words of Mamelodi Sundowns co-head coach Rhulani Mokwena, who is elated to have Zungu back in the Masandawana set-up.

Zungu was announced ahead of the start of the demolishing of Kazier Chiefs at Loftus on Saturday, and Mokwena says the deal was a protracted one with many complications.

Zungu re-joins the Brazilians at the back of a six-year stint abroad where he played for Vitória Guimarães, Amiens and Rangers.  

“I want to thank Bongani for his patience and trust because he had a lot of other offers that were even more lucrative than what we offered but he chose to come to us,” said Mokwena.

The 29-year-old midfielder is known to be fond of Mokwena as he was one of the players who suggested that Mokwena was the one who “coached” Sundowns while Pitso Mosimane was the head coach – something Mokwena has never really ironed out.

“Sometimes it helps when there are some good relations between the coaches and players because there is the desire to come and work with the coach and be part of the set-up. I want to thank his mother and his family for making sure that he chooses us instead of the other options that he had. We look forward to him competing for a place in the team, which will be very hard because we have very good players in his position and he is also a very good player and that makes the competition even stronger,” he said.

Zungu joins the likes of Abubaker Nasir, Sipho Mbule, and Ronwen Williams who played a major role in making sure that Sundowns hold on to a clean sheet against Chiefs as he saved a Khama Billiat penalty spot in the 4-0 win.

“The club has made an incredible effort to reinforce the squad the way they have and kudos to the club for bringing Ronwen. He had a great performance today, exceptional on the build-up play and made much better decisions in the second half. Sometimes the delivery of the ball can be better but he will improve because that is not a style of play that he was used to at SuperSport,” said Mokwena.  

“He made a great penalty save and he gives great leadership. He’s got incredible competition around and it is difficult to compete with Denis Onyango alone because there is also Kennedy Mweene, Reyaad Pieterse. So that means he has to be at his best all the time because the competition is fierce. But like they say, iron sharpens iron,” he added.