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New Mamelodi Sundowns recruit Sipho Mbule’s mind is at the right place at the Brazilians and the midfielder is committed to making a lasting impression on his new team-mates and coaches at Chloorkop.
This was revealed by Sundowns chairperson Thlopie Motsepe on the sidelines of an event to announce the club’s initiative to called Live Limitless Internship Programme on Wednesday.
The treble-winning champions announced Mbule’s acquisition from Tshwane rivals SuperSport United on a three-year contract early this month.
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While the June 3 announcement said Mbule would become a Sundowns player as of July 1, it appears the 24-year-old is already sweating it out at the club’s training base in Chloorkop.
While the rest of the players are on a well-deserved break, Mbule, who has not played since December last year after a fallout with his former club, is hard at training making up for the lack of game time he has endured.
Sundowns are laden with experience and quality across the midfield and Mbule will have to work harder to get regular time.
“I can say right now that Sipho is here training. He is training while the rest of the team have taken a break,” said the 33-year-old son of the Caf president, Patrice Motsepe.
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Mbule made the headlines for the wrong reasons in the last few months of his stay at SuperSport. The creative central midfielder was suspended in April for allegedly disrespecting his team-mates, among other infractions.
It got so bad that SuperSport CEO Stan Matthews publicly said that Mbule would never play for the club again.
But Motsepe said from his interactions with Mbule he got a sense of a player who wanted to mend his ways and improve his game:
“We also have an incredible group of senior players such as Denis Onyango and Kennedy Mweene who have seen players come in and held on to this culture,” said Motsepe.
He advised Mbule to emulate Sundowns midfield kingpin and reigning PSL midfielder of the season Andile Jali, who has established himself as one of the leaders of the team.
Jali, who joined Sundowns in 2018, had his fair share of off-field shenanigans which he has now shrugged off.
Motsepe added:
“Prior to his arrival maybe there were a few statements and considerations made about where he would end up and how he would survive. We’re very excited about where the club is going, and our coaches are the custodian of this culture in the football club. They have done a great job so far.”
Motsepe confirmed that Sundowns might add more players to their roaster but would not be drawn into discussing their names, saying it was disrespectful to the clubs the players were still contracted to.
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