Bongani Zungu
Sundowns’ Bongani Zungu hopes to win a regular starting place in the national team.
Is the Sundowns midfielder the ‘next big thing’?
Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Bongani Zungu will always remember the 2014/15 campaign as the season where he went through an evolution in his career. After starting on the bench he found himself switched from his favourite position, while at international level it took months before his breakthrough came. After moving from University of Pretoria to Chloorkop before the 2013/14 season, Zungu didn’t take long to adapt to Sundowns’ way of doing things. He slotted into an attacking midfield position just in front of Hlompho Kekana and Teko Modise, and the formidable midfield trio – assisted by the front three of Dove Wome, Khama Billiat and Cuthbert Malajila – terrorised opposition defences as Sundowns won the League. But at the beginning of this season coach Pitso Mosimane shuffled his formation, with the surprise change being
BONGANI HAS DONE EXCEPTIONALLY WELL … HE IS YOUNG, HE’S COACHABLE, HE’S GOT THE RIGHT ATTITUDE.”
the conversion of Zungu into a holding midfielder. While he has performed with aplomb in his new role, the positional shift initially raised many eyebrows as pundits felt it is not his natural position – after all, he’d been nominated for Premiership Young Player of the Season as an attacking midfielder during the 2012/13 season. “Bongani has done exceptionally well in his new role because he is young, he’s coachable and he’s got the right attitude,” Mosimane says. “When I moved him from number 10 to number six he didn’t like it, but he accepted it. I told him I’ve moved a lot of players from their usual positions and they’ve done well.” What many fans do not know is that Zungu kicked off his career as a defender at Dixieland Stars before switching to a holding midfield position at National First Division side Dynamos in 2011. It was only after he moved to AmaTuks that Zungu was converted to a creative midfield role by Steve Barker. “I’m not sure if our coach knew this but yes, I played as centre-back and I played central midfielder at Dynamos – the role I’m playing now,” Zungu says. “Coach Barker needed a player that could help Tuks create chances and decided to convert me to an offensive midfielder. I’m back playing as a holding midfielder and, to be honest, I’m enjoying this role and I’m lucky to have Pitso who understands me. “It’s a very demanding role – and very challenging – but I’m not lazy to mark. The difference to where I was playing before is that now I’m always under pressure. As a holding midfielder you need to know where you will pass the ball before you even receive it. This position demands a lot of energy, whereas playing attacking midfield you are only concerned about taking players on and creating chances. Fortunately some teams we play against do not press a lot and that gives me time on the ball,” Zungu explains. In August 2013, Zungu won his first Bafana cap in a friendly international against Burkina Faso. After the 2-0 win, former Sundowns star Zane Moosa was so impressed that he tipped Zungu to be the ‘next best thing’ in South African football. But Zungu was mostly used by Gordon Igesund as a substitute and missed out on playing in last year’s Chan tournament altogether. When Shakes Mashaba replaced Igesund as national coach, Zungu hoped to win a regular place, but he never made it onto the pitch during the Nations Cup qualifying campaign, nor at the finals. He did, however, play the full 90 minutes against Ivory Coast in last year’s Nelson Mandela Challenge, and against Nigeria in the recent friendly, when he rounded off a fine performance with a well-taken equaliser in stoppage time. “That was one of my rare starts, so it’s been a challenge for me,” Zungu says. “The camp for Nigeria and Swaziland was great ... hard and competitive. Players worked hard to get into the starting line-up. “I played few minutes against Swaziland, but the game against Nigeria was one of the best I’ve ever played. Nigeria are tough and they don’t waste time on the ball; they are always moving forward. But we stuck to our normal game and imposed ourselves on them.” Zungu’s name is regularly on Mashaba’s call-up list, but Mosimane is unhappy that the 22-year-old gets very little game-time. “Look at Bafana, we hardly have a player. Even in the Cup of Nations, none of my players played. Which teams score goals? But we don’t have players in Bafana. Okay Zungu… but he didn’t spend time on the park, he was in the stands,” Mosimane told the media. But Zungu is well aware that “in football things do not always happen when you want them to happen”. “I’ve been working and showing the coach [Mashaba] hunger and I’m grateful that he gave me a chance. Sometimes things will go your way, and sometimes not, and it’s all about how you recover. I’m a strong guy and I don’t take things personally when I don’t play. Instead I always try to find solutions. “At the beginning of this season I was not playing at the club, but I kept pushing until the coach gave me an opportunity against Kaizer Chiefs. There’s no time to be grumpy – football is a short career. “What goes through a player’s mind when you are not playing is not an easy thing to deal with. When you are not playing things can be really tough. Fortunately for me I have a supportive family,” Zungu adds. “I didn’t play at the Nations Cup but it was a great experience. I watched closely and analysed players from other teams and I saw a lot of good things that I took out from the tournament. What they do when they don’t have the ball, the way they look for it. I was frustrated that I didn’t play but I learned a lot.”
People said we were a boring team, but for three years they couldn’t stop us.