Mohammedan Sporting to visit South Africa for a friendly in January

I-League club Mohammedan Sporting will visit the South African city of Durban to play a friendly against nine-time South African Premier Division champion Orlando Pirates on January 27, reported Times of India. The matches will be played in January as leagues in both countries witness a break in the first month of the year.

Mohammedan accepted the invitation of the South African Football Association (SAFA), which reportedly sent invitations to several Indian clubs to revive the cultural connections between the two countries.

Kaizer Chiefs, another South African club, is scheduled to play a friendly but SAFA has not yet revealed the Indian opponent of the club.

SAFA said they are organising the matches “considering the shared history of Indian migration to South Africa 156 years ago.” The official invite said, “It is for the first time in South Africa’s history, that Indian football clubs/teams will be gracing South African soil.”

In India, there will be no matches in the Indian Super League (ISL) and I-League as the national team is due to play in the AFC Asian Cup in January. At the same time, the league in South Africa will also come to a halt as the African Cup of Nations 2024 will be underway around the same time.

In the meantime, Mohammedan Sporting has no matches in the immediate future as it opted out of the Super Cup, a league-cum-knockout competition involving 16 teams from the ISL and I-League.

Mohammedan Sporting is currently on top of the I-league with 24 points from 10 matches. They are also the only unbeaten side in the I-League, the second-tier Indian football.

This will be the first time in more than two decades an Indian club will be playing in South Africa. In 2002, an IFA XI had played two friendlies in Pietermaritzburg and Durban. In that tour, East Bengal star Alvito D’Cunha was famously offered a contract by Manning Rangers.