African Stars and Unam are both hard at work preparing for their CAF African campaigns which kick off next month.
Namibian league champions African Stars will compete in the qualifying rounds of the CAF Champions League where they have been drawn against Mangasport of Gabon, while the NFA Cup champions, Unam will take on Kabuscorp of Angola in the qualifying rounds of the CAF Confederations Cup.
Stars will play the first leg of the qualifying round away in the Gabonese town of Moanga on the weekend of 4-6 September, while they will host Mangasport in the return leg between 11-13 September.
Mangasport is one of Gabon’s most successful teams having won the premier league ten times since 2000 as well as for the past two seasons.
The winners of the first qualifying round will progress to the second qualifying round to be played over two legs on 16-18 October and 23-25 October, to decide the 16 teams that will qualify for the group stages of the competition.
Unam FC will host Kabuscorp in the first leg between 4 and 6 September, while the return leg will be in Luanda between 11 and 13 September.
Kabuscorp won the Angola Cup in 2025, while they have only won the Angolan premier league (Girabola) once, in 2013.
The first round winners will progress to the second qualifying round on 16-18 October and 23-25 October, to decide the 16 teams that will qualify for the group stages of the competition.
Stars’ coach Ronnie Kanalelo could not be reached for comment, but they have been quite busy in the pre-season, announcing several new signings on their social media pages, while they last week travelled to Jwaneng in Botswana to compete in a pre-season tournament.
Stars lost their opening match 3-1 to Gaborone United and then lost the third place play-off 4-2 on penalties to Jwaneng Galaxy after a 1-1 draw at full time.
Some of their new signings include former Ongos FC captain Lyomo Dopolo, Unam defender Bonifasius Josef, Tigers defender Collin Martin, and Unam right back Paulus Gideon, while their former national defensive midfielder Dynamo Frederick has also returned from Jwaneng Galaxy.
Nauseb excited about Confederations Cup campaign
Unam coach Robert Nauseb said they are excited about their CAF Confederations Cup campaign and looking forward to facing Kabuscorp.
“We started preparing about two weeks ago and we are very excited to play in the CAF Confederations Cup. Kabuscorp is an unknown team for us but we have gathered some information on them and we’ve studied some of their match videos,” he said.
“They are a very physical side but the way to beat that is through speed – speed will always come out on top against physicality, so we will have to utilise the strength of our players,” he added.
Besides the departure of Josef and Gideon to Stars, Unam have also lost the services of captain Paulus Amutenya and defensive midfielder Natangwe Petrus, who have both joined Botswana Premier League teams. Amutenya joined Botswana premier league champions Gaborone United, while Petrus joined Sua Flamingoes FC who finished third last season.
Nauseb said it was quite a blow, but they could not stand in their players’ way.
“We have lost these payers but we have assessed the situation, and we are now busy getting new players in which we will announce in due course. It’s quite a loss but these things happen in football – it’s their ambition to further their football careers at another club and we can’t stand in their way if they want to pursue their ambitions,” he said.
So far Unam have played one friendly – against African Stars last weekend, losing 1-0, but Nauseb said he was quite satisfied with the outcome.
“The boys have just been back for two weeks, so we were not so worried about the result, it was more about assessing at what level they are and it didn’t look bad. Stars already had an advantage of an extra three weeks so it was a good exercise and we picked up a lot of things that we need to work on,” he said.
“We are also planning to travel to Botswana for two or three friendlies ad that will hopefully be finalised by the end of this week,” he added.
