Gabadinho Mhango ‘had offers from Europe’ before leaving Orlando Pirates

Former Orlando Pirates striker Gabadinho Mhango says he received many offers from Europe after his sublime performances at the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) in Cameroon this year.

Mhango, who recently sealed a move from Bucs to AmaZulu, delivered exceptional performances at Afcon and led the unfancied Flames to the last-16 for the first time at the continental showpiece.

However, when he came back to Pirates he didn’t enjoy much action on the pitch with then co-coach Mandla Ncikazi famously saying maybe the Premier Soccer League is bigger than the Afcon.

Mhango said the Afcon exposed him to the world and he came close to achieving his dream of playing in Europe.

“There were a lot of offers,” Mhango said.

“They were from teams from France, Germany, Spain and Belgium, but I had a contract with Pirates and maybe they couldn’t agree on terms.

“I had to focus on Pirates when those offers didn’t materialise. But if the two teams agreed on the offer that would have been good. Everyone wants to play in Europe.”

TimesLIVE has learnt Sundowns and Kaizer Chiefs were also interested in Mhango, but he was sent to AmaZulu.

Mhango didn’t want to say whether Pirates largely benching him, and not entertaining offers from Europe, was where his problems with the club started.

“I don’t know, but whatever happened is in the past and I need to focus on the future,” the ex-Bidvest Wits striker said.

“The focus now is to show people what I can do and to help AmaZulu be one of the best teams. I want to go there and enjoy my football again and do my best for the team.”

Mhango is currently with his national team at the Cosafa Cup in Durban. It was not a successful campaign for them as they lost to Lesotho and drew against Eswatini.

Those results meant Malawi are out of the running for the quarterfinals. They ended Group B on a high, winning their final game 2-0 against Mauritius at Princess Magogo Stadium on Sunday.