Sundowns is a detour for Mahlambi
minenhle.mkhize@inl.co.za PHAKAMANI Mahlambi might have penned a five-year deal with Mamelodi Sundowns but he is a man on the move.
His big dream is to ply his trade in Europe. Mahlambi couldn’t have chosen a better team than Sundowns. They have sold top talent like Nyasha Mushekwi (to Belgium), Bongani Zungu (Portugal), Keagan Dolly (France) and recently Percy Tau (England) to European teams.
Asked if he still wants to go overseas, Mahlambi confidently replied: “Yes, I still want to go overseas. That is not even a question, I have to go back overseas.”
“Right now I’m fully focused on Sundowns. I have a five-year contract. I still have a long way to go but Sundowns will decide whether they let me go or not (to Europe in that period of five years). I believe that I can work on the things that I want to improve on in the five years that I’ve signed,” Mahlambi explained.
Before his move to Sundowns, Mahlambi was with Egypt’s Al Ahly where he struggled for game time.
“I didn’t fail in Egypt. Obviously people have different opinions about certain things. For me, it is all about starting a new chapter. I wanted to get more game time so that I can get back to my beste,” he added.
Mahlambi was in red hot form before moving to Al Ahly last season. He helped Bidvest Wits to their maiden Absa Premiership crown.
“The standard is high now in our league. If AmaZulu can manage to score three goals against us, it goes to shows the level of our league. There’s no small teams or big teams anymore in our league.. The hunger and the determination is what decides the result on the day. If we can produce players that can go on to play in Europe like Percy Tau, it is a sign that we can compete against the world,” Mahlambi elaborated.
Mahlambi netted on debut this past weekend against AmaZulu in Umlazi but doesn’t want to put himself under pressure.
“Goalscoring is in my DNA but scoring on debut will give me more confidence. I don’t want to put myself under pressure by revealing the number of goals that I want to score. I want to score goals that will make our supporters and my teammates happy. So I won’t say how many goals, I want to score because people will remind me if I fail to reach that tally that I said I will score a certain number of goals but I didn’t deliver to those expectations. I will score what I can manage to score.”
With the departure of Tau and Khama Billiat, Mahlambi is expected to take centre stage in his spell with Sundowns.