Hungry Lions FC might be not contending for the league title or the promotional play-offs this season, but the Northern Cape-based side stands with pride to have a player, Muzomuhle Khanyi, the league’s leading goal-scorer, in their camp.
Not only is the 26-year-old Khanyi, who has rattled the net 17 times in league matches this season, a favourite candidate to lift the Motsepe Foundation Championship’s (Golden Boot Award, but Lions could lose the centre-forward to bigger clubs if his sterling performance by this season is anything to go.
Last season, Prince Nxumalo finished the season as the leading goal-scorer with 18 goals, and now Khanyi is only one goal from matching that record, and it will be a bonus if he scores more than that as it will see him surpass that record.
Before joining Hungry Lions during the 2022/23 season, when the club was still plying its trade in the ABC Motsepe League, Khanyi played for a number of clubs, including Cape Umoya and Platinum City in the 2019/20 season, where he also made an impact.
Acclimatising to the not so fashionable Kimberley-based outfit’s setup was not a walk in the park for Khanyi after he failed to impress in the first two seasons (2022/23 and 2023/24) as the latter finished both seasons on six and five goals respectively.
The moment of reckoning came this season for Khanyi as his shining star brightens his path, and he has since become a darling for Lions, who always rely on him for goals.
His glorious moments this season were when he scored a hat-trick and a brace during Lions’ 3-0 and 2-0 over newcomers, Highbury and Leruma United early in February this year.
With only three league matches remaining for clubs in the league to wrap their 2024/25 season, Khanyi might strike a few more goals to raise his tally to open a huge gap against his challengers on the Golden Boot Award.
His closest rivals are Black Leopards’ Bethuel Muzeu and Joslin Kamatuka with 10 goals each, while Bokang Mowena is hot on the two’s trails with nine goals.
With lack of exposure in his early days as an aspiring young footballer, Khanyi has lost an opportunity of playing in the junior national teams, and his achievement this season could open many opportunities for him in the elite league clubs, and ultimately catch the attention of the national team coach.
As for Muzeu, it is unfortunate that the DR Congo-born star had to watch Prince Nxumalo scoop the Golden Boot Award right under his nose with 18 goals, a goal down after he had seen the back of the net 17 times.
No player has scored more than 20 goals in all the league matches in the MFC, and the highest score was in the 2019/20 season when Ajax Cape Town’s Mosithlaga finished with 18 goals, which was matched by Nxumalo last season.
The players who have been awarded the Golden Boot Award since 2019 are Abednego Mosithlaga (Ajax,18 goals), Monnapule Saleng (Free State Stars with 13 goals in 2020/21 season), Tiklas Thulwa (Black Leopards with 16 goals in 2021/22 season), Keanu Cupido (Cape Town City with 15 goals in 2023/24 MFC season).
