Football is Ngalande’s true calling
Njabulo Ngidi
Pastor Robin Ngalande. That’s how the 22-year-old Ajax Cape Town striker could have been known had he followed his other calling. “I was going to become a priest,” Ngalande said. “But I left that. I didn’t want to go there. I didn’t think it was my calling. I was going to mess things up. To avoid disgracing the church I decided against it – prevention is better than cure. I followed my heart, which was football. I love it so much. I consider it as my religion. That’s why I do it with passion. It’s more than a job.”
The religion that is football has taken him to many sacred temples that he has called home, where devotees also make the pilgrimage every Sunday to worship their angels doing battle against that day’s demons.
Those temples include the iconic Vicente Calderon Stadium, home to Atletico Madrid where he played for their B team for two years, to Mamelodi Sundowns’ Loftus Versfeld Stadium and Bidvest Wits’ Bidvest Stadium.
This Saturday, he will be at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium where the Urban Warriors will come up against Mamelodi Sundowns in the Nedbank Cup final.
It will be an emotional trip for Ngalande, playing against the team that first brought him to South Africa six years ago. He was team-mates with Buhle Mkhwanazi, Keagan Dolly, Jabulani Shongwe and Siyanda Xulu. It was only Xulu who muscled his way into the Brazilians’ senior team.
“It would mean a lot for us to win this cup,” Ngalande said. “That’s how you make your name, by winning a lucrative tournament against a big team that everybody expects to win. This is a young team that isn’t used to being in cup finals, but now that we are there we should make the most of it.”
The Urban Warriors have already won before the final kicks off. As Sundowns will play in the Caf Champions League next year, by virtue of finishing second in the Absa Premiership, Ajax will take the spot of “Nedbank Cup winners” in next year’s Caf Confederation Cup. Ngalande will play in the tournament either way, because his parent club Wits have booked their place by finishing third. He hasn’t made up his mind where he wants to be next season when his loan spell in theh Mother City ends.
He has had a better stay at Ajax, under co coach Roger de Sa, who signed him for the Cl Clever Boys. Ngalande has made 12 appearances an in the Premiership, scoring just once. In the Ajax pecking order, he is behind Nathan th Paulse, Thabiso Nkoana and Tashreeq M Morris, who has been a revelation.
But Ngalande believes he can add value to th the club, especially when they travel the continent tin in the Confederation Cup. He has travelled el across Africa with the Malawi national te team and knows how influential participating in in the Confederation Cup will be for the yo young Ajax side.
“It’s going to give the young players some va valuable experience and more exposure,” Ng Ngalande said. “For some of them this will be the first time they are representing their co country and there is no higher honour than th that in football. I know because I have had the pr privilege to do so with Malawi. These travels will bring a lot of confidence when we come backa to the country as this will fast-track th their development. When they come into the se senior national team they’ll have a good idea of what’s needed.”
The stage is set for someone to be the hero fo for Ajax and take them to the Promised Land by helping them lift a lucrative trophy, something th they haven’t done in seven years. They will be hoping to follow the scriptures of ending n seven years of famine, with a possible seven en years of feasting to follow.
When they come into the senior national team they’ll have a good idea of what’s needed. Robin Ngalande Ajax Cape Town