{"id":29699,"date":"2016-10-25T02:14:01","date_gmt":"2016-10-25T02:14:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/african-champions-mamelodi-sundowns-the-toast-of\/"},"modified":"2016-10-25T02:13:59","modified_gmt":"2016-10-25T02:13:59","slug":"african-champions-mamelodi-sundowns-the-toast-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/african-champions-mamelodi-sundowns-the-toast-of\/","title":{"rendered":"African champions Mamelodi Sundowns the toast of South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Mamelodi Sundowns are the toast of South Africa after becoming only the second club from the country to ever win the African Champions League.}<\/p>\n

Sundowns lost 1-0 against Zamalek in Egypt on Sunday but triumphed 3-1 on aggregate as ‘the Brazilians’ raised their first continental title of any kind.<\/p>\n

In addition to winning $1.5m for claiming the trophy, the Pretoria-based side will also now represent Africa at December’s Fifa Club World Cup.<\/p>\n

“To come to Egypt and raise the trophy, I don’t think there’s any sweeter way to lift it,” Sundowns coach Pitso Mosimane told the Confederation of African Football website. <\/p>\n

Mosimane, who coached South Africa’s national team from 2010 to 2012, is the first South African to lead a Champions League-winning side.<\/p>\n

When Orlando Pirates won in 1995, the only previous time a South African team had triumphed, the Johannesburg side was led by a Scottish and Zambian coaching duo.<\/p>\n

South Africa’s Sports Minister Fikile Mbalula was in attendance at the game in Alexandria, and he believes Sundowns’ victory will inspire their league rivals to take the competition more seriously.<\/p>\n

“It is important for southern Africa and for South Africa,” Mbalula told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“It’s a really important achievement because in this competition, the dominance has (traditionally) been in North Africa. I think Sundowns have made it big for us – we are very excited.<\/p>\n

“We, the government, have always said that clubs must take the competition seriously, so this is very important.”<\/p>\n

On Monday, both the South African government and President Jacob Zuma sent out congratulatory messages to Sundowns through their Twitter accounts.<\/p>\n

{{“It’s a miracle”}}<\/p>\n

The team’s success was made all the sweeter given that Sundowns had been knocked out of the Champions League by DR Congo’s AS Vita in a preliminary round.<\/p>\n

Sundowns dropped into the second-tier Confederation Cup from which they were also eliminated, only to earn a sensational reprieve to the Champions League after Vita were disqualified in May for fielding an ineligible player.<\/p>\n

“It’s a miracle,” Sundowns goalkeeper Dennis Onyango told BBC Sport.<\/p>\n

“We’ve suffered a lot. When we were given a chance, it was our time to show what we can do. The guys have proved (the doubters) wrong. We’ve won it at last.”<\/p>\n

Sundowns, who are owned by billionaire mining magnate Patrice Motsepe, will now contest December’s Fifa Club World Cup in Japan.<\/p>\n

They will be the first South African team to do so since the tournament started in 2000, five years after Pirates’ win.<\/p>\n

“To club Motsepe and coach Mosimane, I would like to say you deserve all the accolades and you truly led from the front,” said South African FA President Danny Jordaan in a statement.<\/p>\n

“This is a historical first for a South African club to qualify for the prestigious Fifa Club World Cup.”<\/p>\n

“I want to wish Sundowns all the best in their next assignment and I am confident they are up to the challenge. They showed their tenacity and technical know-how in overcoming Zamalek over the two legs.”<\/p>\n

“This victory will serve South African football very well and will help in building a competitive Bafana Bafana side. South Africa stands tall on the African continent once again. Well done.”<\/p>\n

The Fifa Club World Cup, which features the champions of each continent, including Uefa Champions League winners Real Madrid, will take place between 8-18 December.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Mamelodi Sundowns are the toast of South Africa after becoming only the second club from the country to ever win the African Champions League.} Sundowns lost 1-0 against Zamalek in Egypt on Sunday but triumphed 3-1 on aggregate as ‘the Brazilians’ raised their first continental title of any kind. In addition to winning $1.5m for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[100],"byline":[249],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-29699","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sports","tag-africa","byline-bbc"],"bylines":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"contributors":[{"id":249,"name":"BBC","slug":"bbc","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":104}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29699","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29699"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29699\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29699"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29699"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29699"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=29699"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=29699"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}