Austin Muwowo says the departure of Milutin Sredojevic at Orlando Pirates made things difficult for him to break through.
He said that left him with no motivation because Rulani Mokwena, who took over from Micho, said there was no way he was going to play because he doesn’t know him.
Muwowo was signed by Pirates ahead of the 2019/20 season from Forest Rangers in the Zambian League, where he turned heads by walking away with the 2019 Zambian Footballer of The Year award.
The 25-year-old arrived at Pirates with the recommendation of Micho, but the Serbian left on the eve of the MTN8 quarter-final against Highlands Park. Then Mokwena was given the task to lead Pirates in a caretaker role until the club found a new coach.
With Micho gone, Muwowo was told by Mokwena that he won’t play him because he doesn’t know him and said even “if I tried I knew I was not going to play.”
“It was Micho who I knew there as a coach and Rulani by then didn’t know me,” said Muwowo to iDiski Times in Durban.
“Mokwena was also under pressure by that time I came and it was like ‘you, I don’t know you much. Even if you can train that much, I want to play people I know’.
“I had to push, I tried my best and still nothing. He was also under pressure as a team we were going through a lot – we weren’t winning. We used to win once, then draw, draw, draw and some losses there. That led to less game-time also.
“Then he got fired. Was it fired or stepped down? It was confusing and then Josef Zinnbauer came and he wanted to see my videos to check which games did I play, there was nothing.
“I played some games but because I wasn’t ready, I didn’t even do that much. Most of the games I played were the CAF Confederation Cup.”
With no game time at Pirates, Muwowo was loaned to Swallows last season. There again he found something similar – not getting along with coach Brandon Truter.
To make matters worse, Muwowo said he went for months at Swallows without getting paid, causing further nightmares during his stay in South Africa.
Muwowo’s contract was terminated by Pirates at the end of last season and has since joined ZESCO United back home.
“The coach, Truter didn’t like me at all,” he said.
“I would train the best and still won’t play. We had a friendly match against Mamelodi Sundowns, he said ‘this time you are going to play’, but nothing.
“I trained hard and there was no motivation at all. Dylan Kerr came and I played a few games and then financial issues started. We were not paid at Swallows for four to five months. This was not something I expected in SA.”
