Ngalo feels at home with rookies Highlands
WHEN Highlands Park unveiled their 12 new acquisitions last week, the focus was on the striking pair of Collins Mbesuma and Charlton Mashumba who were arguably the club’s biggest signings.
Little was made of Eddie Ngalo, a defender who can also play in the holding midfield role.
He was one of Mpumalanga Black Aces’ best players last season, as the side finished with the fifth best defence in the league having conceded 29 times.
Ngalo also played a big part in attack and scoring five goals.
Now the 34 year old has to challenge fellow veterans Rudi Isaacs and Jermaine Christian for a place in the heart of the Highlands defence.
Key to the team’s success last season was their organised rearguard which conceded just 18 goals in the NFD.
“I want to bring a winning mentality. People assume we are newcomers, but you will see by the players we have that we are not newcomers. We must have the mentality to win every game,” Ngalo said.
“There’s [Tapuwa] Kapini, Rudi and Jermaine. So it’s going to be challenging, but I am prepared to learn from them and work well with them.”
It seemed Highlands were confident they would win promotion because they expressed an interest in Ngalo before the promotion playoffs.
“They called before their playoffs and then immediately after they won promotion, they called me again.
“They convinced me to join after speaking to them for about two hours,” Ngalo said.
“The decision to join [Highlands] was not difficult ... the owners know me well. They were the owners of [the now defunct] Silver Stars [where] I played.”