Peter Ndlovu reflects on Premier League record
First African to score in Premier League
Mamelodi Sundowns’ legend Peter Ndlovu has recalled fondly how he blazed the trail by becoming the first African to score in the Premier League.
The Sundowns Team Manager spoke to BBC Sport Africa over the goal he scored on a day like this 30 years ago while playing for Coventry City FC.
“I was told then, ‘Do you know that you’re the first African to play in the Premier League?’. I probably just said ‘OK’ and didn’t give it anymore thought,” he said.
The Zimbabwean football legend scored for Coventry as they beat Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 on September 2 1992.
The former Warriors captain said looking back, he now realises that his exploits in the Premier League were bigger than he imagined.
“The thing for me was that I was just playing football. But when you see now after all these years, it’s very special when you’ve started something for African players to come after me,” he said.
“I’m just so proud of all of them that they have made [the Premier League] better and we can see that many of the big money players (English clubs) are buying now are Africans.”
The former Sundowns striker went on to play for Birmingham City and Huddersfield Town among other clubs in the United Kingdom.
The 49-year-old first signed for Coventry from Highlanders FC back home in Zimbabwe as a teenager in 1992.
He wound up his playing career back in Africa at Sundowns at the onset of the Patrice Motsepe’s era in 2004.
He played for the DStv Premiership multiple champions for four years in some 80 games before he went into management, a transition he said was inevitable.
“Sundowns has been my home for a long time. I have probably been here longer than everyone. They looked after me as a player and I think it was easy to have a look at my future and decide to come into management,” Ndlovu told Sundowns’ website in the year 2020.
He was the first Zimbabwean to grace the fields of the Premier League.
Ndlovu’s brilliance opened the door for compatriots such as Benjani Mwaruwari and Marvelous Nakamba to play in the rebranded Premier League.