Resilient champions

It's the evening of January 14, 2018. Mbabane Swallows players are in Manzini, celebrating after a big win over rivals Manzini Wanderers in the SwaziBank Cup at Somhlolo National Stadium. And then, they get a dreadful phonecall, club boss Victor Gamedze has been shot. They rush to MediSun clinic where their fears are confirmed, Gamedze is dead.

Fast forward to the evening of April 29. Three months after that fateful day. Swallows have just beaten Vovovo 5-1 to be crowned MTN Premier League champions at the same Somhlolo. Swallows players and officials are now in the stands with their supporters wearing t-shirts branded 'Myekeleni aphumule' in honour of Gamedze.

They are now singing the now immortal song, "Myekeleni aphumule," again in honour of their dearly departed father. Poignant. Brilliant. Moving.

Mbabane Swallows are League champions yet again. Unbeaten in the League in 47 matches overall and 25 this season, they now need to avoid defeat in their last League match against Tambuti to make it two incredible invincible seasons.

They are irrepressible, relentless and invincible. Worthy champions. This Swallows team has been through the worst in the last year or so. They lost popular club CEO Sibusiso Manana early last year but rose from that tragedy to become the first local side to reach the group stages of any CAF competition when they qualified for the Confederation Cup group stages.

And then in January this year, the tragic death of Gamedze threatened to put to a grinding halt the existence of Swallows. After all, he had transformed this club.

Gamedze was more than a chairman at Swallows. He was a father figure to the players, a brother to the staff and hero to the supporters. He sometimes took over training himself especially ahead of big games, just as he had done prior to the meeting with Wanderers in January.

He also gave teamtalks when he felt necessary just as he had done at halftime of that match against the same Wanderers. Gamedze was a present chairman. He famously trained his team on the green grass at their hotel in one of their Confederation Cup away trips last year.

For this Swallows team to rise from the heartbreak of losing such an influential figure at the club is amazing. It's Swallows second trophy since Gamedze's passing following their SMVAF Ingwenyama Cup triumph in March.

They also made history by becoming the first local side to reach the group stages of the CAF Champions League in March. Now, they have defended their League title. This Swallows team, more so the players, deserve a lot of praise for the mental strength they have shown to keep going after such a tragic start to their year.

They have proved that they are resilient off the field as they are on it. This is as big a football victory as it is a psychological one. All hail Mbabane Swallows. All hail the kings of Eswatini.