Peter Mponda

It’s been almost seven years since Peter Mponda suffered the dreaded misfortune of a playing career brought to an end by injury while at Cape club Santos. The Malawian didn’t despair though as he headed back home where he first ran a funded academy before

We catch up with the former Santos defender who is now a club owner, businessman and assistant coach, while also slowly integrating himself into the Malawian political scene.

When Peter Mponda was forced into premature retirement at the end of the 2011/12 season, he didn’t have to start scratching his head in wonder of what to do next as many retiring footballers do when their playing careers come to an end. Just a few months shy of turning 31 and having called it quits at the back of a campaign in which he played just four games as Santos were relegated, he then packed up his life in South Africa to return home to Malawi. At the time, British company Surestream Petroleum was laying the foundation for a football academy in collaboration with the Football Association of Malawi, and having been a loyal servant of the national team for a decade, Mponda was then hand-picked to lead the Surestream Academy project based in Chilomoni, Blantyre, which catered for budding footballers aged between 8-18. “I was the main man at the academy, doing both coaching and administration work,” Mponda details. However, the academy was defunct two years later upon the sponsors’ return to England, as Mponda then had to devise another plan to keep himself active. Cue the birth of Wizards FC, a club owned by Mponda, who adds to the team’s sponsorship income by investing his personal funds from a transport business that he simultaneously runs. For two years in succession, Wizards won promotion from the third tier all the way to the Super League, lasting two years there before being relegated to the First Division where they now play. “I was lucky that the academy managed to produce very good players and most of them are now with the senior national team,” he says. “We earned our promotion when we came up last time and we hope we will do the same again. The reason we were relegated boils down to sponsorship issues, which is the same reason why we are still not able to attract players. I’m now the owner of Wizards, but I don’t get to spend all my time with the club because I’m also the assistant coach of both the senior national team and the Under-23s.” Mponda explains how financiallybehind the Malawian Super League is compared to South Africa’s PSL. “Every season we change sponsors because funders only put in money for a year, so at the end of every year I am always running around looking for sponsors,” he says. “This season a cosmetics company called Eshani is backing us. Since the money from sponsors is not enough to sustain the team, I also use money from my own savings and the small transport business I run. The prize money you win here in Malawi as champions of the Super League is what they pay clubs as a PSL grant in South Africa, yet at times we travel distances of over 700km for games and you have to pay the transport costs from your own pocket.”

Though Mponda is fortunate that sponsors are always keen to help him out, keeping the club alive has been a constant challenge in an environment where he could have easily abandoned the project and sought a coaching job elsewhere. “I think I’m a bit blessed because every time I knock on people’s doors, they open,” he says. “Maybe it is because of what I did as a player for them to want to associate their brands with me. My passion has kept this club alive. The easier way for me would have been to coaching job in a club where, if you are lucky enough, they take you in, and if not, the struggle continues. To go the route I took is challenging and demanding, but then at times you have to do this in life. Right now our ambition is to make sure we win promotion back to the top league; that way, sponsors will be easier to get. Once we get back, we want a top-half finish in the first year, after which we will be competing for honours.” Mponda is in the process of obtaining his coaching badges which he knows is a must, but feels his experience in the dugout so far puts him at a distinct advantage. “In Malawi, it is a must that yo have the qualifications to be a coach, but since I’m still fairly ne in coaching, I will eventually get the papers,” he says. “So far I hav achieved a lot in the sense that I already an assistant coach for th national team.”

Political ambitions

Not only has Mponda becom boss of a club, run a transport business and sat on the bench as an assistant coach, but he is also a man who has set his sights on national governance, just like Liberian president George Weah and Brazilian legend Romario who went into politics after retiring from the beautiful game. “I always wanted to go the political route, but people kept saying I should rather stick with football, so I backtracked a bit,” he admits. Last year the former Black Leopards hardman announced his intention to contest the 2019 elections in the Blantyre City South constituency, but has since pulled out after putting his political career on hold for another five years. “What was pushing me into politics was the fact that there aren’t many into leadership positions,” he says. “I also felt the people running the government are not doing enough for sports, not only football, yet they want results all the time. I felt someone needed to go there and speak on behalf of the sportsmen. There has been ex-footballers here in Malawi like Kinnah Phiri and Fischer Kondowe who wanted to go into politics, but also withdrew. “Before I withdrew I was actually going to join a certain political party, but people felt I should contest as an independent candidate. At the moment I don’t belong to any political party; however, come 2024, I will definitely be contesting the elections. I will be keeping track of the political space at the moment.” Mponda knows that not every former footballer will be as lucky as he has st his playing days, with his advice to those still active very respect the game. one of the lucky guys, but I his all happened because I was disciplined,” he notes. e problem with us footballers we think we will play football hile and so we never have a or the post playing-days era. eed to have savings because b we do pays handsomely, but short-term career. We need lan well while we are earning. never changed for me because r playing, I was still able to ain my lifestyle. Many football yers don’t think properly once fame is there. We think we will ays get what we want so we p thinking, and this should rve as a message to the ones ho are still playing. They have ready been told football is a ort career; if you don’t respect he game, there is no way it will espect you.” Mponda’s career started off ith a trophy-laden spell with Bullets back home before he moved to Ottawa Wizards in Canada where he also became ue champion in the two years ere. Following a second spell with Bullets, he then moved to Monomotapa from where he proceeded to Leopards, spending five years in Limpopo before switching to Santos. “Joining Leopards was a career highlight considering I had been in Zimbabwe,” he says. “Then receiving the call from Goolam Allie to join Santos while playing for a struggling Leopards side in the First Division was a blessing. I won personal awards at all the clubs I played for, while with Bullets I won everything.”