Mutondo Stars are one of the fastest-raising clubs in Zambia and within three years since the team was revamped, the Evergreen have been promoted to the Super League.
On Sunday, Mutondo won promotion after defeating Young Green Buffaloes 4-0 at the School of Excellence in Baluba. The club finished the season in second position with 58 points.
The Zeddy Saileti drilled side has risen from Copperbelt Provincial Division One (2021/22) to National Division One in the 2022/23 season and will now be playing in the 2023/24 Super League season.
The club featured in the Copperbelt Provincial Division League in the 2021/23 season after acquiring the Geokas Curve Football Club status.
Mutondo President Evaristo Kabila is delighted with the team’s newly acquired status. He has stated that the team is returning to where it belongs.
“Now that we are going to where we belong, I think things will be much easier,” Kabila said. “We have played Premier League teams before to test ourselves.”
‘Mutondo not going to fulfill fixtures but compete in the Super League’
Kabila has revealed that Mutondo Stars are coming into the Super League to compete and not just fulfill fixtures.
“We are coming into [the] Premier [League] to be very serious. We began with the same players from the Provincial League into the National Division One, there is progression with the players,” Kabila said.
He added: “We are going with the same players to the Super League….. But we will just have to lift the level to that of the Premier League.”
Meanwhile, head coach Zeddy Saileti believes he has proven his credentials by taking the team into the Super League.
The former Nkana gaffer said the qualification was down to the players’ maturity and hard work.
“The boys have matured and I believed in the boys when we went into the top four because of the way they started to play,” Saileti said. “The maturity was there, the players developed…. And most of the players, I have been with them for three seasons, they know my philosophy.”
He anticipates a tough outing in the Super League.
“It is tough, we need to sit, strategize and plan for the Premier Division.”
