“Congratulations on the return of Bongani Zungu, I want to congratulate the club for their hard work behind the scenes. It was a complicated deal with a lot of issues.”
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These are the words of Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Rulani Mokwena who is delighted to have Zunga back in the Masandawana squad.
Zungu was announced ahead of Saturday’s demolition of Kazier Chiefs at Loftus, and Mokwena says the deal has been long and involved many complications.
Zungu rejoins the Brazilians after a six-year stint abroad, where he played for Vitoria Guimaraes, Amiens and Rangers.
“I want to thank Bongani for his patience and trust because he had many other offers that were even better than what we were offering, but he decided to come to us,” said Mokwena.
The 29-year-old midfielder is known to have a fondness for Mokwena as he was one of the players who suggested that Mokwena was the one who “coached” Sundowns and Pitso Masimane was the head coach – something Mokwena never corrected.
“Sometimes it helps if there’s a good relationship between the coaches and the players because there’s a desire to come and work with the coach and be part of the setup. I want to thank his mother and his family for making sure he chose us over the other options he had. We are looking forward to him fighting for a place in the team, which will be very difficult because we have very good players in his position and he is also a very good player and that makes the competition even greater,” he said.
Zungu joined the likes of Abubakar Nasir, Sipho Mbule and Ronwen Williams who were instrumental in Sundowns keeping a clean sheet against Chiefs as he saved Kham Billiat’s penalty in the 4-0 win.
“The club has made an incredible effort to strengthen the squad in this way and kudos to the club for bringing in Ronven. He had a great game today, exceptional in building up the game and making much better decisions in the second half. Sometimes the delivery can be better but he will improve because it is not the style of play he is used to at SuperSport,” said Mokwena.
“He’s a great penalty saver and gives great leadership. There is incredible competition around him and it is difficult to compete with one Denis Anyang because there is also Kennedy Mwine, Rayaad Peters. So that means he has to be at his best all the time because the competition is fierce. But, as they say, iron sharpens iron,” he added.
