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- Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi said Thlopie Motsepe is an excellent acquistion as his father's replacement as club chairperson.
- Thlopie's father Patrice was last week elected as CAF president.
- Sundowns also beat TP Mazembe 1-0 on Tuesday night to record a rare CAF Champions League double.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Manqoba Mngqithi said newly elected CAF president Patrice Motsepe's decision to appoint his son Thlopie as his replacement at Sundowns is one of the best decisions a father can make.
Motsepe's ascension to the continental footballing body's top job means he has to relinquish his club chairmanship at Mamelodi Sundowns.
That he's passed it on to his son is something that delighted Mngqithi, who said Thlopie is well equipped for the job.
"This is one of the best decisions a father can ever make. Thlopie is a very good boy, intelligent and very humble. He’s very principled and for me, there's no chance that he'll fail. He also has us as adults to assist him and because he's humble, it's easy for him to grasp all the right information that can make him a top leader," Mngqithi said.
"I'm looking forward to seeing him take charge because I know what he’s capable of. He’s worked with us on other projects and if you haven’t met him, he's a very good person. He’s destined to become one of the best leaders who can lead Sundowns."
One of Thlopane's duties will be to oversee Sundowns' continued CAF involvement at club level and his coaches haven’t let him down.
One of their most recent successes is the double over TP Mazembe from the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Sundowns snapped Mazembe’s long home unbeaten streak and doubled that up with a 1-0 win at Loftus Versfeld that cemented their place in the CAF Champions League quarter-finals.
The significance of beating Mazembe twice isn’t lost on Mngqithi, even though he knows its put a target on their backs.
"Not many teams can beat TP Mazembe twice in a row. It is difficult and they're a very difficult team, but I would not like to focus on the message we’re sending out there. That message is also making our lives difficult because everybody is jacking themselves up when they’re going to play against us," Mngqithi said.
"They will want to look for every minor detail because they could think there’s no way this team could win twice in a row against TP Mazembe and they’ve got nothing. If you dig deeper into the dirty linen and I don’t like that bit. There are areas of our game where we’re still working hard and we still need to improve. They are still working hard though."
When Sundowns host Black Leopards on Sunday, it'll be their second league fixture in the space of a month.
Black Leopards may not be in the best of form as basement dwellers with 12 points from 19 games, but four of those points have been collected against Kaizer Chiefs (2-2) and Orlando Pirates (2-0).
With star striker Peter Shalulile suspended for that game, Mngqithi has to dig into his considerable reserves for that game.
"It's a big loss and it's worse when you look at these suspensions that we get, we’ve also had on this season. I know he didn't do anything. When I look at Peter's one, I know he was fouled and when that happens and you’re suspended, that’s something else. Maybe it was better that it happened then because I was worried he may get a second yellow that would have taken him out of some important matches," he said.
"While he's a big loss, we’re happy that he's only missing one match but he scores in almost every game. We trust in the team we have. We may be without him and Kermit Erasmus, but we have Mauricio Affonso coming back, along with Sibusiso Vilakazi and Keletso Makgalwa. We’re not just reliant on strikers to score at Sundowns, but he didn’t deserve to be suspended."
