Kennedy Mweene

The Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper is not yet ready to hang up his gloves and still has much he wants to achieve with The Brazilians.

Kennedy Mweene may be the back-up goalkeeper to Denis Onyango at Mamelodi Sundowns but has played his part in the enormous success of the club since his arrival at Chloorkop almost eight years ago. He is one of the most decorated players in the Premier Soccer League as he features in his 16th season in South Africa and bats away any suggestion that he is on the verge of hanging up his gloves. Far from it, he tells KICK OFF’s Nick Said of his desire to keep on playing as he also reflects on his leading role in one of the greatest upsets in African football history.

There is perhaps a perception that veteran Zambia goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene plays a bit-part role at Mamelodi Sundowns and has had a minor hand in their success over the past few years, but in reality nothing could be further from the truth.

The 36-year-old had made over 30 appearances for the side in the last two-anda-half seasons, including 22 in the league as The Brazilians romped to back-to-back league titles.

He will be the first to admit that he sits behind Uganda gloveman Denis Onyango in the pecking order at the club, but a number of injuries to the latter, as well as squad rotation, have given Mweene plenty of opportunity to excel.

And shine he has, with 15 of those 22 league appearances resulting in clean-sheets as he provides a steadying, calming influence at the back for Sundowns and a more than capable deputy when Onyango is not available.

Signed from Free State Stars at the end of the 2012-13 Premier Soccer League season, he has since won five league championships, two Nedbank Cups and two Telkom Knockout titles, making more than 100 appearances in that time.

And any suggestion that he may be about to throw in the towel are quickly brushed aside.

“To be honest, it is true to say that as a goalkeeper, the older you become, the wiser you become. But for me it is also about the love of the game,” Mweene says.

“It is true that you must listen to your body. When the body says, ‘I’m tired’, then you are tired. I can be 36 now, but the way I am feeling at the moment, I think I can push

“EVEN WITH THE NEW PLAYERS THAT HAVE COME IN NOW, IT WILL RUB OFF ON THEM AND HELP WITH THEIR MENTALITY.”

for another three years.”

That would take him to the cusp of

40, and Mweene adds that he draws inspiration from former national teammate James Chamanga, who was banging in the goals in the PSL 15 years ago at Moroka Swallows and last season finished as the leading scorer in the Zambia Super League past his 40th birthday.

“I tell everybody, I can’t stop playing now when the top-scorer in Zambia last season is [Red Arrows striker] James Chamanga, who is now 40. No, I will never stop playing football now!”

But that does not mean the last year hasn’t been a rollercoaster for Mweene, and he suggests with the COVID-19 pandemic, Sundowns’ 2019-20 PSL title was their hardest won as they pipped Kaizer Chiefs on the final day.

He was in goal as Sundowns defeated Black Leopards 3-0 on the final day of the campaign to lift the trophy, and says a lack of training due to lockdown and an unfamiliar bio-bubble environment took their toll.

“It was definitely the hardest one to win. Even with the national team I had never been in camp for over two months. We were the first one to go in camp and the last to leave,” he said.

“It was new for us, some people would argue that we were maybe used to it because we go into Africa and stay in camp a week or two, but it was not like that at all. You were alone in a room, you could not interact [with teammates).

“Previously when we would play in Africa we could move around, go to the local mall or something. But it is no longer like that. You go from training straight to your room. But we have to adapt because you don’t know for how long it will be like this.

“It was also difficult because we never played friendly games, we did not train for months. You could see that in the players, it took them four or five games [in the biobubble to get up to speed]. It was difficult for us and the coaches.”

Sundowns have lost coach Pitso

Mosimane to Egyptian giants Al Ahly, and he has been replaced in the hot-seat by cocoaches Manqoba Mngqithi and Rhulani Mokwena, as well as senior coach Steve Komphela.

There is a good mix of experience and young blood in the technical team, but Mweene says from the players’ point of view, nothing has really changed. The desire to win trophies and to continue to be successful burns as brightly as ever.

This is also true of the massive turnover of playing personnel in the squad, which includes the arrival of two younger goalkeepers in Ricardo Goss and Jody February.

Despite the changes, Mweene says they should never lower their expectations or ambitions, and their aspiration to lift the CAF Champions League trophy again remains firmly in place.

“We have got a lot of players who play for the national team, that is a plus for Sundowns. They have travelled in Africa with their respective countries. We have learnt a lot and that shows in the PSL. There

“HE SPOKE A LOT, BUT NOT ABOUT TACTICS. BUT ABOUT THE TOGETHERNESS AND TO FIGHT FOR ONE ANOTHER.”

is a lot of experience here,” he says.

“Even with the new players that have come in now, it will rub off on them and help with their mentality.

“Winning this or that trophy will never be enough. It is like people who have a lot of money. They might be millionaires, but they will always want to be billionaires and then trillionaires.

“Winning trophies is creating history and no-one can rub out history. For us that is what is pushing this team.

“We know how to win trophies. We have been in a lot of cup finals and we know how to push up and bring it down a bit if needed.”

Mweene was a key part of one of African football’s greatest stories, how Zambia came from nowhere to win the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations title that was jointly staged by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.

Chipolopolo topped a pool that included the latter, Libya and powerhouse Senegal, before breezing past Sudan 3-0 in the

quarterfinals, and edging a star-studded Ghana 1-0 in the semifinals.

Still, no-one gave them a chance in the decider against a Cote d’Ivoire side that included Didier Drogba, Yaya Touré, Gervinho, Didier Zokora and Salomon Kalou.

Mweene kept a clean sheet in the final that ended 0-0, and then saved in the shootout from Kolo Touré as Zambia claimed a stunning 8-7 shoot-out win.

It was arguably the biggest upset in the competition’s history against the Ivorians’ much-vaunted Golden Generation.

“If you look at that Zambia team, there were only one or two European-based players, the rest were playing in Africa. And when you look at that team compared to the other teams, we had respect for each other, we were like a family,” Mweene says.

“They knew my weaknesses, I knew my defenders’ weaknesses. We were a family and that did not take just two years [to form], it took four years to build those things.

“We went to the tournament as underdogs, but compared to all the teams that we came up against, we were the team that featured the most players from Africa – we had guys from TP Mazembe [in DR Congo], players playing in Zambia, Egypt and South Africa.

“That was an advantage for us because we used to spend a lot of time together and everyone knew everything about his teammate.”

Mweene also credits French coach Herve Renard with creating the right environment for success, cutting out the egos and making sure that all players were viewed as equal in the squad.

Renard would go on to win the Nations Cup with Cote d’Ivoire three years later, finally ending their 23-year wait for success.

“Coach Renard knew how to treat African players. The respect was there, there were no egos in camp,” Mweene says.

“If you were playing for TP Mazembe, when you come to the national team, you forgot about your club. If you are playing for a team in Germany, forget about it. We are now playing for our national team and for our country.

“That really helped us, we were all really pushing in the same direction, no-one thought he was bigger than any other player.

“Herve also came with all these things … he spoke a lot, but not about tactics. But about the togetherness and to fight for one another.”

Mweene has not played for Zambia in over two years, despite the fact the side have not had a settled goalkeeper in that time.

He seems a bit perplexed as to why, suggesting there are “politics” at play, but says it has helped him to have time for his next major focus – earning his badges as a goalkeeper coach.

“There were a lot of things going on in the national team. When they left me behind for the two games against Zimbabwe and Algeria [in November 2019], I will still busy my goalkeeper coach courses. That actually worked to my advantage.

“As for the reason why they left me out, I don’t know, I don’t have any idea, but you have to respect the coach and what he wants. But I did not have a problem, it gave me time to look at other things.

“There will always be football politics, especially in African football. It will always be there and I don’t want to engage myself in those things.”

Mweene insists he has not retired from the national team, but says he would have to think about it deeply if he was to receive a call-up again from current coach Micho Sredojevic.

“If they asked me if I am still available for the national team, I will say, ‘I have to make a decision, but at the moment I am a bit busy’.

“I even told them, there are a lot of youngsters that are coming into the fold and I have been with the national team since 2004. I have been up and down with Sundowns in Africa, I have been up and down the continent with the national team. I haven’t had the time for my family.”

That sounds like a player keen to hand over the reins, but Mweene has left the door ajar … just about.

“At the end of the day, when the country calls … look, I won’t say completely that I won’t play for the national team, but there are things that they need to fix.

“The association needs to fix a lot of things, so for the moment … no, I am not part of the national team. They must fix their things first.”

“THERE WILL ALWAYS BE FOOTBALL POLITICS, ESPECIALLY IN AFRICAN FOOTBALL.”