New Magesi head coach John Maduka: I joined this ambitious club to win things

The former Maritzburg United manager had been employed by Thwihli Thwahla since 2023 but spent the last six months in limbo after a Premier Soccer League ban.

Royal AM's financial struggles saw the club suspended from competitive football and ultimately expelled from the league.

Maduka was appointed as a replacement for Owen da Gama, who parted ways with the club last week.

Speaking at his unveiling this week, the experienced campaigner detailed his ambition to make up for lost time.

He told the Sowetan: "The ambition has to be higher for an opportunity like this, which is what you want when things are professional and it becomes easy for the coach.

"It's an opportunity that they gave me here and I'm looking forward to the challenge and I will do my best to do well and help the club."

Reflecting on his time with his former employers, the head coach added: "It was very testing to tell the [Royal] players to come to training... [so that] if we play the following week, we should be ready.

"The boys were training so hard but at the end of the day, nothing was happening. I don't wish for any coach or anyone to go through that because you go to training every day, and you don't know what will happen next. It was not a good time, it was very bad."

On his Magesi expectations, Maduka said: "We want to compete and win things. One of the reasons I joined this ambitious club is that they want to win things.

"We've already seen this past season when they won the Carling Knockout title. That tells you that it is not a team that prides itself as a small team but wants to compete with anyone."

Magesi ended last season in 13th place in the Betway Premiership, but were also Carling Knockout Cup winners under previous boss Clinton Larsen.