{"id":44354,"date":"2025-12-07T20:23:52","date_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/?p=44354"},"modified":"2025-12-07T20:23:52","modified_gmt":"2025-12-07T20:23:52","slug":"mngomeni-i-left-sundowns-for-my-bafana-dream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/2025\/12\/07\/mngomeni-i-left-sundowns-for-my-bafana-dream\/","title":{"rendered":"I left Sundowns for my Bafana dream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Thando Mngomeni has opened up about two defining<br \/>decisions of his career.<\/p>\n<p>How did he leave Santos for Kabo Yellow and how did not move to Wits University come to life?<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-thando-mngomeni-on-mamelodi-sundowns-move\">THANDO MNGOMENI ON MAMELODI SUNDOWNS MOVE<\/h2>\n<p>His career started at Santos before moving to SuperSport United, followed by a stint with Helsingborgs IF in Sweden. After returning to Santos, Sundowns came calling in 2008.<\/p>\n<p>As a young kid in Cape Town, Mngomeni watched Samuel \u201cEwiee\u201d Kambule score a spectacular goal for Sundowns against Cape Town Spurs, a strike that turned him from a ball boy into a lifelong Sundowns fan. \u201cOh my goodness, that\u2019s the day I turned into a Sundowns fan,\u201d Mngomeni said on the <em>Omni Audio African Podcast<\/em>. \u201cI think I celebrated with the team in the corner. I was a Spurs ball boy, but yeah, always at the game.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-bafana-bafana-world-cup-dream\">BAFANA BAFANA WORLD CUP DREAM<\/h2>\n<p>After finally joining Sundowns, playing time sadly became limited, and with the World Cup<br \/>looming, he had to make a decision. Roger de S\u00e1, his former coach at Santos, called hin after<br \/>taking the Wits job. \u201cI had to weigh my options and leave,\u201d Mngomeni said. \u201cLoyalty in football<br \/>shouldn\u2019t come first, especially with the World Cup coming.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe transition was all about the influx of players,\u201d he continued. \u201cI thought they were adding<br \/>three or four, but when I arrived, it was nearly 18 or 19 new players. Immediately, I felt, okay,<br \/>this is a challenge. I wasn\u2019t worried. One of the reasons I joined was because of my favourite<br \/>player, Ewiee Kambole. That goal he scored against Spurs as a kid, that\u2019s what made me a<br \/>Sundowns fan,\u201d Mngomeni added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\" async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Africa tv video display -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-1669381584671856\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"3579572842\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script data-jetpack-boost=\"ignore\">\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n#left #Sundowns #Bafana #dream<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Thando Mngomeni has opened up about two definingdecisions of his career. How did he leave Santos&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mzansi"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44354"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44356,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44354\/revisions\/44356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eduzim.co.zw\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}