Despite leading champions Mamelodi Sundowns to the top spot of the Betway Premiership, the Brazilians have fired their head coach Manqoba Mngqithi. The head coach took over from Rhulani Mokwena, who was also fired before the start of the current season.

REPLACED

Since Mngqithi has been axed, he has been replaced by a more experienced Miguel De Azevedo Cardoso as the new head coach of the club with immediate effect. Miguel was the head coach of Espérance Sportive de Tunis in Tunisia and reached the finals of the 2023/24 CAF Champions League. He joins Sundowns with three of his assistants Fabio Fernandes, Pedro Azevedo and João Araújo. Miguel has coached in Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Ukraine at some of the biggest clubs such as Porto, Braga, Deportivo La Coruna, Celta Vigo, AEK Athens, Nantes and Shaktar Donetsk. According to the club chairman Thlopie Motsepe who announced the news to the media earlier today, Steve Komphela and Kennedy Mweene will remain as part of the club's new technical team.

SUNDOWNS THANKED MANQOBA

Thlopie thanked Mngqithi and Wendell Robinson for their loyal service over the years and wished them well in their new endevours. Manqoba Mngqithi and Wendell Robinson will forever remain part of the Mamelodi Sundowns Family. Mamelodi Sundowns is also thankful to Romain Folz who recently joined the club. "The players will meet the recently appointed coaches when they return to training on Wednesday," Thlopie said. Recently, Sundowns lost to newly promoted Magesi FC in the Carling Knockout Cup final. During the start of the season, they were knocked out of the MTN8 semis by Stellenbosch FC. In the CAF Champions League group stage, they are also struggling after playing draw twice.

Sundowns are in Group F of the Fifa Club World Cup where they will play Borussia Dortmund (Germany), Brazil's Fluminense and South Korean champions Ulsan Hyundai.