Inside Mamelodi Sundowns: The journey to the Club World Cup

New York Times

16 hours ago

The Athletic spent four days with South Africa's Mamelodi Sundowns as the team prepared for the Club World Cup in the United States.
You can read part one here, with a final dispatch from Pretoria and a special podcast to come.
When Mamelodi Sundowns clinched their latest South African Premiership title in May with a 3-0 victory over Chippa United, the team's Portuguese head coach Miguel Cardoso was presented with a cigar in the dressing room. Though he is not a smoker, he marked the occasion by puffing away, as the players danced around him.
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The celebrations continued into the early hours of the next morning. Cardoso could hear the players from his hotel room. Yet he also knew that bonuses were to be determined by the outcome of the final and looming league fixture with Magesi. This led to him calculating there would be no let-up in their focus or determination over the next few days — so he decided to give them a break. He wanted the players to have the space to reflect on their achievement. With veteran back-up goalkeeper Denis Onyango turning 40, it was the opportunity to unwind over a barbecue ahead of a busy few weeks at the end of a long season.
During this downtime, Cardoso was never far away from work. After the team's yellow bus rolled into Chloorkop, Sundowns' training ground, upon returning from East London, his voice was hoarse but he fulfilled his commitment to an interview to The Athletic. Even though he wasn't scheduled to be at the facility the next day, he turned up anyway. His brother, visiting from Europe, was given a guided tour.
In December 2024, Cardoso became the club's first foreign coach since the Dutchman Johan Neeskens in 2012. All of Sundowns' success since has been with South Africans but Cardoso was brought in to try and inspire the sort of defensive resolve that has been missing in recent years in the latter stages of the CAF Champions League. Danish sporting director Flemming Berg was also conscious of Sundowns' participation in the Club World Cup in the United States: they have long played exciting football but to have a chance of progressing through a group containing Borussia Dortmund, Fluminense and South Korean side Ulsan, they need to manage games better, accepting they will have less of the ball than they are used to.
For Onyango, the club's longest-serving player, Cardoso's experience managing Esperance in Tunisia was just as vital as his European background. Since Sundowns last lifted the CAF Champions League in 2016, all of the winners have come from north Africa, where teams are not as expansive but tend to be quicker getting the ball forward. The dominance of the north Africans, according to Onyango, has naturally led to everyone else questioning what they are doing.
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Though Cardoso might offer a stronger defence, he is also an emotional coach who prefers to get close to his players rather than drawing lines between them. He is not a part of the players' WhatsApp group but he messages each of them directly before and after games to check on how they are feeling, sometimes challenging them. Occasionally, he'll use his staff to dish out criticisms when he is not there, affording distance between himself and confrontation, protecting his own relationships. He likes that the squad can regulate itself and this allows him to bring reason to any subsequent conversations.
Grant Kekana, a 32-year-old central defender, has welcomed Cardoso's fresh approach, as well as the way he communicates. In the dressing room, Kekana describes himself as the 'hype man', someone who gets his team-mates outside of their comfort zone. On the pitch, Cardoso expects him to be different, bringing calmness and organisation to his back four. 'The coach shows a lot of care towards you as an individual and that means you don't want to let him down,' Kekana says.
For Cardoso, the biggest challenge was finding an edge with a group of players already used to winning, albeit one that had fallen short outside of South Africa. At the start of his time at the club, several matches were disrupted by red cards and Cardoso sensed there was something behind the indiscipline. It led to him calling a meeting at Chloorkop involving Berg and some of the board members.
The mood remained aggressive as it drew to a close and Cardoso was worried the fall-out might tear the squad apart. He asked each of the players to use one word to describe what they wanted out of their team-mates and the season as a whole. He ended up writing the words down, asked the players to sign the document and put it in a plastic folder, which he carries everywhere. 'When I feel that something is not aligned, I remind them of what we agreed,' he says.
Ahead of matches, Cardoso uses puzzles as motivational tools. Before the victory over Chippa United, he used a photograph of Max Verstappen's Red Bull car in the pit lane, and called it 'box work.' He would ask the players whether Formula One was an individual sport or a collective one, knowing it takes as many as 30 mechanics and technical staff to change four wheels in just a few seconds.
Cardoso knows Sundowns have the most money in the league and he knows that the club has the best structure. 'But alone, and looking after only yourself, leads nowhere,' he insists.
Before each training day at Chloorkop, the players gather in a circle and pray. Saturdays are led by the Muslims in the group and on this occasion, Namibian forward Peter 'The Pastor' Shalulile says a few words from the Koran. The squad then start the session with a passing drill where the coaches shout and clap constantly, inspiring energy to any weary limbs.
There is virtually no downtime and the players bounce from one drill to the next before finishing with a routine that the head of performance Mathias Zangenberg calls, 'the tournament.' This involves two teams of seven competing against each other using full-sized goals on a pitch that is no bigger than a penalty box. Whoever scores the first goal stays on, while two other teams of seven encourage and tease from the sidelines. The format is basic but the players love it and Zangenberg thinks it helps stimulate competitiveness after a couple of days off.
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The Dane was brought to the club in 2023 by Berg after spells in similar positions with Nordsjaelland and Aarhus. He works in the space between the technical staff and medical department, constantly analysing the present, medium-term and future condition of the players. In 2025, where there is barely any break between seasons because of the Club World Cup, his work is more important than ever.
Zangeberg's focus is on 'load management', which serves as code for making sure the players are not run into the ground. He is constantly making checks, calling it a '360-degree assessment,' which roams all year long, with lots of information taken from GPS data.
During the 2023-24 season, Zangenberg found out Sundowns players had on average travelled the equivalent of two and a half times around the equator. He thinks physical burnout is pretty straightforward to spot but mental burnout is more difficult. This means he does 'wellness scores' in person rather than asking players to fill in an app on their mobile phone. 'It's important to look people in the eye when you're asking these questions because in that communication, very often, things are revealed that wouldn't appear on a form,' he says.
Zangenberg thinks he has all of the technology he needs to do his job properly but fundamentally, success in keeping players fit and sharp is down to his and the rest of the staff's ability to 'read the room' — especially this summer when the men's club season will go on for longer than ever.
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Sundowns would lose the CAF Champions League final to Egyptian side Pyramids a few weeks after The Athletic visited South Africa but it was already decided that, following the second leg in Cairo, the squad would have at least four days off before flying to Florida for the Club World Cup.
Much of the conversation about the toll on players has focused on the impact at European clubs. Though the appetite for the Club World Cup seems greater in South Africa because of the exposure it offers to a club from a country that tends to receive less media attention about football, Zangenberg speaks about the importance of 'detachment' from the treadmill of the calendar. The players need a break if they are to perform to their best and ultimately deliver the entertainment that many fans want to see.
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In a very practical sense, Zangenberg had a role in deciding what equipment Sundowns would travel with. Players like their routines and are accustomed to a way of working and training. 'At this stage of the season, we don't want to take them out of a zone they are uncomfortable with.' This means rubber exercise bands are in the suitcase, along with spices to complement the food they eat. 'We just want to make everything as smooth as possible for the players,' Zangenberg insists.
To some degree, the biggest challenge is deciding which individuals make the travelling party. That Saturday at Chloorkop, 30 players took part in the training session and four were injured. Sundowns' wealth affords them a massive squad. As a club, Sundowns employs nearly 350 staff, including administration. Not everyone wants to go and experience the Club World Cup but many do.
But as far as Berg is concerned, Sundowns are not in the United States merely to make up the numbers. 'We will never go into a tournament without the ambition of going through the group stages,' he insists. 'We know it's going to be difficult… but we also know that we have a strong team and we also can put things together. When you're on the other side of the group stage, you never know what's going to happen.'
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen / The Athletic; Sayed Hassan / Getty, FIFA / Getty, Khaled Desouki / Getty)