Mamelodi Sundowns defender Grant Kekana has suggested that their recent CAF Champions League triumph will have a more significant value in the coming years than it has now.
Having won their first in 2016, Sundowns clinched their second Champions League title by outwitting Moroccan side AS FAR Rabat 2-1 on aggregate in the final, with the second leg ending 1-1 in Rabat last Sunday, while the Brazilians won the home leg 1-0 in Tshwane the previous weekend.
“Winning the Champions League feels like getting a monkey off our backs. We’ve been carrying so much weight, wanting this thing for the longest time. I haven’t really quite grasped what it actually means, but I think we will get to understand what it means in years to come,” Kekana said.
Despite becoming African champions, Sundowns failed to win any domestic cup in the just-ended campaign with Orlando Pirates ending their eight-season league dominance.
“It was a challenging season. We lost out on all the domestic cups, but we were able to redeem ourselves at the end by taking the big fish [referring to the Champions League], so despite all those challenges and disappointments, we are more than happy to have won the CAF Champions League,” Kekana stated.
The Sundowns defender insisted that Pirates winning the league, their first in 14 years, was good for SA football
“I think it [Pirates winning the domestic league] is good for South African football and for the national team. Obviously, Pirates have been chasing us for the longest time, and they finally caught us this season, but they couldn’t catch us for too long,” Kekana said.
“I think it’s good for South African football to have two big teams fighting against one another. It only bodes well for the national team, and one can only wish those who are going to the World Cup all the best. We as a nation need to rally behind them.”
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