Esau Kanyenda (Samuel Shivambu/BackpagePix)
Kanyenda recalls the 2001/02 season with Ezenkosi, where he was voted the Best Player and Top Goal-scorer of the Coca-Cola Tournament.
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The former Malawian international says upon receiving his goal-scorer award from Patrice Motsepe, the South African mining billionaire told Kanyenda that he was in the process of buying a team and wanted to sign him.
“I think if I didn’t go overseas I would have probably joined Sundowns. It was Mr Motsepe who gave me the top goal-scorer award and I remember he said to me he is buying a team and wants me in that team. But I really don’t know if Jomo would have been comfortable with me joining Sundowns because at that point Jomo was the one who was deciding everything and I was only a player,” said Kanyenda.
“Another thing is that I couldn’t make decisions for myself because I was still young, so I was under the guidance of Jomo.”
Motsepe went on to buy 51% of shares for Downs in 2003 before buying the remaining 49%.
However, Kanyenda moved to Russia in 2003 where he played for Rostov FC.
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