Vaal’s very own pride and joy Thapelo Maseko’s current PSL club Mamelodi Sundown’s recently crashed out of the CAF Champions league Semi-final on Friday 26th April at Loftus Verfeld stadium losing 1-0 on both 1st and 2nd leg tiers of the tournament to Esperance Tunis who advanced to the 2023/2024 CAF final on an aggregate of 2-0 on home and away legs.
Although Maseko’s Masandawana have been proven their dominance in the domestic flight premiership in the last 7 consecutive seasons lifting SA biggest and most sought after trophy seven times in a row, Thapelo’s side last lifted the inaugural CAF champions league 2016 and CAF Super Cup in 2017 under the spell of the continents most decorated coach from the onset of South African soul Pitso Mosimane.
Despite Maseko’s dream of lifting his first ever CAF trophy, he made the Vaalilians proud by securing a victory coming home with a silverware when he was crowned Africa Football League Champion with Mamelodi Sundowns after scoring the only goal in a two leg encounter with Al-Ahly in the final.
Thapelo’s goal of becoming a CAF Champions league medal holder is still far from being a perished dream as masandwana are still set to battle it out in the next 2024/2025 CAF Champions league campaign.
He further represented Vaal in the TotalEnergies CAF Afcon Tournament that was hosted earlier in 2024 where South Africa’s Bafana Bafana surprised the African continent and the whole world after they were crushed in the semi-finals by their most rival side Nigeria and went on to win bronze medal. Maseko has an opportunity to show case his skills and talent to the whole world once more after Mamelodi Sundowns qualified for the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup despite being eliminated from CAF Champions league.
