Sundowns legend Mudau happy as Shalulile passes him on PSL scoring list

With his late goal in Mamelodi Sundowns' 3-0 win over Cape Town Spurs on Wednesday night, Peter Shalulile marked a significant personal milestone of moving to second on the Premiership all-time scorers' list behind Siyabonga Nomvete. 

The Namibian hitman completed a cross by Lebohang Maboe in the dying minutes to move to 111 goals, surpassing Sundowns legend Daniel “Mambush” Mudau, who is on 110. 

The top five is completed by Mabhuti Khenyeza, who ended level on 110 with Mudau; and Bradley Grobler of SuperSport United, who is on 107 and, with Shalulile, also eying Nomvete’s record of 123. 

Shalulile has scored 27 league goals at Highlands Park and 84 at Sundowns, but is still a long way from reaching Mudau’s record of 172 goals (62 were scored in the pre-Premier Soccer League, or PSL, era) as the club’s all-time top scorer. 

Mudau congratulated Shalulile for overtaking him on the list of PSL all-time scorers and urged him to chase Nomvete’s record. 

“I am happy for him, I always knew he had the potential to score lots of goals to make Sundowns fans happy,” former Sundowns captain Mudau said.

“I said a few seasons ago he would surpass me and I said this because of what I saw in him as a lethal goalscorer. I was proud to have this milestone for the club but I am happy he has surpassed me because records are meant to be broken. 

“I know he has worked hard to be where he is and I believe he can go for Nomvete's record. He will tell you I have been encouraging him to go work harder at his game and I am proud of him.” 

Mudau said he has been impressed by Shalulile's work ethic and how he conducts himself off the field. 

“He is a hard worker, he is disciplined and he has added a lot of value to the team since he arrived at the club.” 

Sundowns coach Rulani Mokwena was also full of praise for Shalulile. 

“Peter is an amazing human being, I have never seen such a focused player and I don’t have words to describe him. He prays for his team and when we are looking for someone to pray, we say where is Peter,” the coach said. 

“When I am going through difficulties, I sometimes pick up the phone and ask him to pray for me because it seems he has a direct line to God and this is a reflection of the type of person he is. He is a good human being. 

“It validates the statement that I always say that good footballers need to be good people, because you correlate with the universe. They say when you are a good person you work with the universe because it has its way of functioning. 

“The sun doesn’t say it is December and I have been rising and shining every day for the past 3-billion years, so today I am tired. The sun still comes out and so it is people like Peter who understand they have a responsibility to the universe. 

“They have to inspire certain people and they make me not only a better coach, but a better human being because I learn from them.” 

Though he lavished praise on Shalulile, Mokwena said the striker would not have so many goals without the support if his teammates. 

“I am proud of Peter but these types of achievements you can’t do alone. In all those goals, I don’t remember a lot of free-kicks or penalties — somebody had to give the pass to Peter for him to score.”