Komphela – Sundowns Are Trendsetters In Africa

Mamelodi Sundowns senior coach Steve Komphela says the club should be praised as “trendsetters” for changing how people view CAF inter club competitions after Orlando Pirates were the first SA team to win a continental trophy.

Downs and Pirates are the only South African teams to have won the CAF Champions League, with the Buccaneers lifting the trophy in 1995, while the Masandawana claimed it in 2016.

Meanwhile, Kaizer Chiefs won the African Cup Winners’ Cup, which is the predecessor of the CAF Confederations Cup in 2001.

While for many years there wasn’t seemingly much interest in CAF competitions from Mzansi’s top teams, with some even withdrawing from competition, Sundowns have been chasing the continental crown more than ever before over the past few years.

Komphela, who was speaking to iDiski Times senior writer Velile Mnyandu in edition 96 of the newspaper, admitted he himself didn’t fully focus on the CAF competitions until he joined the Brazilians.

“Credit must be given to Sundowns for being trendsetters,” Komphela told iDiski Times.

“When you and I and everybody found CAF competitions unfashionable, apart from Orlando Pirates who had won it before, okay we would play.

“Even myself I must make a confession I was not as clued up with all the competitions and the passion to know what’s happening exactly in Africa because it was just a by the way thing.

“But up until Sundowns turned on the volume it started to be clear and I’m sure everybody in the country understands that playing in the CAF competitions is worth doing, then you start going to the rest of the other counterparts in the league who are moving in and succeeding.”

You can read Komphela’s full interview with Mnyandu in the digital version of our newspaper iDiski Times website.