For more goals to come I just need to keep on doing what I was doing – Peter Shalulile

Mamelodi Sundowns and Namibian international striker, Peter Shalulile struck the 100th club goal of his illustrious career against CR Belouizdad in the CAF Champions League quarter finals on Saturday, April 22. Shalulile became the latest player to join the list of prominent players who have managed to bag 100 goals or more in the Premier Soccer League, joining the likes of Siyabonga Nomvethe, Collins Mbesuma and Masandawana’s all-time top goal scorer, Daniel Mudau.  

The Namibian star revealed how significant it is to reach the 100th goal mark in his career, he said: “To be honest when I scored the two goals I didn’t even notice that I was on a hundred. I was only told after the game because for me it’s all about scoring goals, I didn’t check on anything that I’ve scored a hundred.”

“It’s an honor, it has not been an easy journey. To my teammates, I just wanna thank them, the technical team and everyone behind the scenes. Everything we do behind the scenes is the reason why I scored a hundred goals.”

Shalulile also became the all-time top goalscorer for Namibia after scoring against Cameroon in the 1-1 draw in the AFCON Qualifiers in March and now becomes amongst only five PSL players to reach the 100-goal mark. The 29-year-old striker expressed how international players have inspired him to reach this milestone and his desire to keep on scoring, “As a striker I always had the dream of scoring goals because I also look up to players in Europe who score more than I did (players like Christiano Ronaldo). It’s something that I’ve always wanted to do and to achieve. For more goals to come I just need to keep on doing what I was doing and keep on grinding.” 

Masandawana now boast only two players who have scored 100 or more PSL goals for the club, they are the only team to have as many players achieve that feat. Shalulile had an early taste of South African football with Highlands Park in 2015 and continued bagging goals after making his move to Chloorkop as he developed into a proven lethal striker, scoring incredible goals and scooping plenty of individual honors, while also making football fun for Bafana Ba Style and the fans.

“The three years at Highlands Park was more about me molding and being made into the striker that I am today, to deliver on big occasions and for big clubs like Sundowns. They’ve also helped me in terms of being calm, experience wise and that’s something that I really thank Highlands Park Coaches for making me the player I am and getting an opportunity to play in one of the big clubs in Africa and to deliver on what I’ve worked on.” Shalulile expressed how his early days at Highlands shaped him into what we see today on the field.

The Brazilians are on their way to meeting defending Champions Wydad Casablanca in the semi-final of the CAF Champions League after booking their spot when they beat CR Belouizdad both home and away. Downs recorded an incredible 4-1 victory in their first quarter final leg at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers and returned home to brush aside the Algerians by 2-1 to seal a 6-2 aggregate victory.

“It’s about us believing more in ourselves now, we know that anything is possible. Football has evolved into another dimension where it’s played now on the field rather than it being physical, now we know what we can do to win against teams from the north and we just stick to our thing and that’s to play football and score goals. If you’re a big player you’ll really prepare for such moments, these are the moments that we’ve prayed for, these are the moments that we’ve trained for and moments that are here and we should deal with it and we should go out there and do our best.” Said Shalulile in a press briefing.

“We go out there believing that it’s possible for us. This team at Sundowns we do a lot of work behind the scenes, it’s a team that demands a lot and that’s why we have to deliver every time we get on to the pitch. It’s not only the way we play but what we do behind the scenes, there are days where we do not sleep because we want it so badly that we forget even about our families and we come to work in the middle of the night and do what we have to do because it’s the job that we have. We have to deliver and that’s why we are where we are.”