The Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria, in the province of Gauteng, that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first division of the South African football league system.
The Mamelodi Sundowns Football
Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria, in the province of Gauteng, that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first division of the South African football league system. Founded in the 1970s, the team plays its home games at the Loftus Versfeld stadium and the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe stadium. Under the tutelage of Screamer Tshabalala, the Sundowns played an entertaining and effective style of soccer that became known as The Shoe Shine and Piano.By the end of 1986, the club had won the Mainstay Cup in a 1-0 fight against Jomo Cosmos at Ellis Park and goalkeeper Mark Anderson was chosen Footballer of the Year due to the arrival of new players. The duo changed the name of the club to Mamelodi Sundowns and joined the Federation's Professional Football League three years later, and went on to campaign in the National Professional Football League. The Marabastad Sundowns were officially founded in 1970 by Itsweng and Sebotsane, both from one of the largest municipalities in Pretoria, Mamelodi. The Brazilians are one of the most historic soccer clubs in South African football and have built a dynasty of successes.
The mining magnate, nephew of one of the founders of the Sundowns club, Frank 'ABC' Motsepe, renounced all powers of the club according to the Caf statutes after being elected president of the governing body of African football earlier this year.
The Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club
was originally formed in Marabastad by a group of friends in the 1960s. In 1969, Ingle Jinx Sigh, one of the founding players of the Sundowns and later owner of Marabastad Sundowns and Pretoria City (which later became Supersport United), decided to sell the club to Dr. The Sundowns coach, who was spending a lot of money, recruited the services of elite South African soccer players in search of supremacy, and changed his equipment to look like that of the Brazilian national team, which earned them their nickname, the Brazilians.The Sundowns qualified for the continental title for the first time in the 1994 African Cup of Champions Clubs, but lost to AS Vita Club in the second round. In 2004, mining magnate Patrice Motsepe bought a 51% stake in the club and subsequently took full control of the club by buying the remaining shares, thus becoming the sole owner and shareholder of the club. The club played in the final of the 2001 CAF Champions League, where it was defeated 4-1 on aggregate by the Egyptian club Al Ahly. The Sundowns Football Club originated around Marabastad, a cosmopolitan area in the northwest of the financial district of Pretoria, in the early 1960s, where it was created by a group of young people who lived in the area.
That same year, 1985, South African football was the first sport in the country to stop being racial and the National Football League was formed, which incorporated the best clubs in the country, including the Sundowns. The newly created team was named Marabastad Sundowns in honor of a fan club called Sundowns, which existed in the 1940s, which was also formed in Marabastad. The club has 1 appearance in the 1994 African Cup of Champions Clubs and 14 games in the CAF Champions League from 1999 until now.
