Kaizer Chiefs Football Manager Bobby Motaung is still feeling the impact of the club’s 2021 CAF Champions League final loss and the dramatic 2019/20 league title slip.

Motaung described these events as “traumatic” for Amakhosi, a major club like Chiefs, and acknowledged the difficulty in recovering from such setbacks.

Despite a challenging league performance last season, which saw them miss a top-eight spot, Kaizer Chiefs secured a coveted return to continental football.

Their Nedbank Cup victory not only ended a decade-long trophy drought but also earned them a spot in the CAF Confederation Cup, bringing immense joy to their dedicated fanbase.

Speaking on the Robert Marawa show, Motaung elaborated on the emotional toll of those near misses.

“That’s why we’re back in Africa now. We’re back in Africa again after so many years. We lost the Champions League in the final during COVID-19. That thing was traumatic, and we lost the league in COVID-19, last minute with a draw [against Baroka],” said Motaung on the Robert Marawa show.

“That trauma you come from as a big club is not an overnight switch, where you come back, you know. To lose at that level with an ambition of trying to reach higher levels.

“So it took a lot of time for us to really get things back. We are not back yet, even now, it’s a building phase again, 55 years, another 55 years,” Motaung stated.

Motaung has revealed that as an administrator, he’s responsible for sustaining the club’s brand and further shared that the success and growth of the club is to see people happy, players going to play overseas, and reaching goals.

“Well, there’s a lot. There are a lot of journeys, there are a lot of setbacks, some are even off-field,” said Motaung.

“Because football is a journey, like I said, different coaches, different times, different generations, and that has an effect. But as an administrator, the goal is to sustain the brand and to make sure that we live up to the standards. I mean, if you look at what we’ve developed, from renting offices to the brand, the brand is now at a marketing level; it’s huge.

“My experience is that the more challenges, the growth there is now. I’m still learning new things, we are still building on new things because the game has changed, that’s the highlight of going forward, not backwards. Backwards just gave us the base, now this thing is changing, it’s becoming a monster.”

He continued: “So for me it’s more growth, part of it, and I’m being part of the growth. Experience in the past is there to help us navigate certain things, but the success has always been to see people happy. The growth of players, players going overseas, players achieving and winning the leagues, and going to Africa. We won the CAF Super Cup, you know, African experience, going to the Champions League again, losing during COVID-19, it was tough times by the way that time.

For Motaung, the ultimate success is seeing people happy. He vividly recalled the jubilation after the Nedbank Cup win, stating, “The success, like I said, the happiness, the joy to see people happy. What happened after the Nedbank Cup, that thing must come back, that thing must come back to see people rejoicing because even the chairman [Dr Kaizer Motaung], when he speaks, all the speeches we’ve been having in functions that we’ve been having, it’s about those people,” he added.