Newly appointed Magesi FC coach Owen Da Gama has defended his shortcomings at TS Galaxy and Black Leopards where he last held a professional coaching role at the highest level before moving to the third-tier division. 

The 63-year-old mentor took over the helm at Limpopo ABC Motsepe League outfit Vondwe XI Bullets at the beginning of the season, in a move that raised eyebrows as he was last seen in the top-flight during the 2021/22 season as Sekhukhune United’s assistant coach.

Now, having been named Magesi’s new coach after a prolonged period away from the professional ranks in a surprising twist of events, da Gama has provided clarity on his stay at the Carling Knockout Cup champions.

“I’ll be here for the season definitely but beyond that, I think it’s some contractual agreement between me and the club. But I’ll definitely be here for the season. I think the main focus now is to turn the corner,” he said.

“We not even mentioning the word relegation, that doesn’t exist. I think it’s just about focusing now and turning the corner.”

The Mpumalanga-born tactician went on to hit back at critics claiming that he’s outdated due to his underwhelming stints at Galaxy and Leopards, providing a detailed explanation as to what went wrong at the two clubs in question.

“I think with TS Galaxy when I got there, they were bottom of the log and I took them to number eight on the log. And I think the next season that’s when there were a lot of problems within the team, there were disagreements, it had nothing to do with football,” Da Gama stated.

“It was disagreements in other aspects of the game, including with the coming in of [Sead] Ramovic, he was supposed to come in as my assistant coach. I mean I had Shaun Bartlett and other people, and I just wanted that to wait a little bit.

“So, at TS Galaxy I think I did well apart from some things in the second season. Tim Sukazi treated me with respect, and I respected him as well. With Black Leopards, I found them with 11 games to go and they were bottom of the log. 

“I couldn’t sign any players, I couldn’t do anything, but I gave it my best. In those seven games, we won more games than they had won the entire season. It was really tough, but we gave it our best, but it was a little bit too late at the time,” the former Bafana Bafana assistant coach added.

Da Gama’s charges will swing back into action with a clash against the rejuvenated TS Galaxy side at the Mbombela Stadium on 4 January 2025 in a bid to snap their four-game winless run in the Betway Premiership.