Mamelodi Sundowns players are contributing to ensure that the club’s coffers are overflowing with money.
With the club being owned and bankrolled by the wealthy Motsepe family via billionaire mining tycoon Patrice Motsepe, the club has also received a windfall by taking part and winning various competitions since May.
On Sunday, Sundowns won the inaugural African Football League and pocketed a whopping $4m (R76-million).
This after Downs beat Wydad Athletic of Morocco 2-0 in the second leg of the competition played at the Loftus Stadium in Pretoria at the weekend.
They overturned a 2-1 first-leg defeat in Rabat a week ago.
Masandawana also pocketed R15-million for winning the DStv Premiership title in June.
On top of that, they were rewarded with a $1.2-million cheque for reaching the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League, where they were knocked out in heartbreaking fashion by the same Wydad Athletic via an own goal by Mothobi Mvala.
R112-million richer
In six months since May, the players have brought in a cool R112-million into the coffers of the club.
This is a good investment by the club, not only from the boardroom but also from the players and technical staff which is led by the highly ambitious coach Rulani Mokwena.
It has since become a tradition at the club for players and coaches to share the prize money, and it will be interesting to see how the club will reward players for adding millions of rands into the already swelling bank account.
Each player at Sundowns is likely to earn R2-million for contributing to the club’s fortunes.
Sundowns also swept the tournament’s individual players’ awards when newcomer Thapelo Maseko won the Most Valuable Player and Top Scorer accolades.
Maseko scored two goals in the tournament while Bafana Bafana goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was selected as the Goalkeeper of the Tournament after playing in six matches and kept five clean sheets.
