Namibian giants African Stars FC official Salomo Heii has stated they will bank on their new signings to do well in the Caf Champions League this season.
Last season African Stars narrowly missed out on making it to the group stage after losing 1-0 to South Africa's Orlando Pirates during the preliminary rounds, but they have now strengthened their squad with several new signings.
The club’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Salomo Heii is confident with the new signings, saying the team will go past the preliminary round this time around.
“Last season we came very close to the group stages after narrowly losing to Pirates,” Heii told The Namibian.
“It was a very unfortunate result, but we realised we are two or three players away from the group stages and we think we have acquired those players now.
Next Match
“We have acquired Rakotonanahary Soloniana, a midfielder from Madagascar, and Ibouniyamine Soulimana, a striker from Comoros Islands.
“We have also acquired two attacking players from the local leagues - Deon Tjizumauje and Koko Katjimune, who are highly talented young players that I'm sure will represent Namibia in the future, so now we feel we are ready to give it another shot for the group stages.”
As part of their preparations for the first leg match against Kampala City Council Authotity (KCCA FC) of Uganda, Stars played Botswana champions Township Rollers in Gaberone last weekend, where they drew 1-1 and Heji said it was a good test against a fellow Caf Champions League team.
“We played well and scored first and we could have won in the first round already if we had taken our chances,” Heii continued.
“But Rollers finished stronger, I think they are ahead of us in terms of pre-season training, but we did achieve our objective of testing ourselves against one of the best teams in the region. Two weeks prior to our game they beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 in a friendly so it was a good test for us.”
Stars will come up against the Ugandan champions, who are fresh from winning the Cecafa Kagame Cup where they beat Azam of Tanzania 1-0 in the final played in Kigali, Rwanda.