{"id":74052,"date":"2019-02-05T11:05:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-05T09:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/?p=74052"},"modified":"2019-02-05T11:05:12","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T09:05:12","slug":"wanderers-unveil-2018-midfielder-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/2019\/02\/05\/wanderers-unveil-2018-midfielder-of-the-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Wanderers unveil 2018 Midfielder of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><em>By Arkangel Tembo, Contributor: <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mike-butao.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-69953\" src=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mike-butao-300x280.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"280\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mike-butao-300x280.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/mike-butao.jpg 391w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/www.times.mw\/wanderers-in-2nd-fisd-cup-win\/\">Fisd Challenge Cup<\/a> champions Be Forward Wanderers have signed Masters Security midfielder Francis Mkonda on a three-year contract at an undisclosed fee.<\/p>\n<p>Wanderers have moved quickly to snatch the 2018 TNM Super League Midfielder of the Season who was also on the wanted list of other big clubs.<\/p>\n<p>Mkonda, who was unveiled Monday at Wanderers Club House in Blantyre, said he was happy to have signed for one of the biggest clubs in Malawi.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cThis is a dream come true for me and I will work hard to impress my new employers. I know Wanderers have good players and finding a place in the starting lineup will not be easy,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Wanderers General Secretary Mike Butao described Mkonda as a fantastic signing.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWe are pleased to announce that Mkonda is now our player. We are happy to have him in our camp. We believe that he will become an even greater player at Wanderers,\u201d<\/em> Butao said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Masters owner Alfred Gangata said the two teams discussed the deal and reached an amicable agreement.<\/p>\n<p>Gangata congratulated Wanderers for acquiring the services of a player he described as Masters\u2019 heart and soul.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>\u201cWhat has happened is as good as committing suicide. We have almost killed our team but we had to do it because Wanderers met our conditions. Other big teams were also looking for Mkonda but it is Wanderers who met the requirements,\u201d<\/em> he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But Gangata had earlier asked the Nomads to pay K5 million for his captain\u2019s services and also said the player would only be released after the first round of the new season.<\/p>\n<p>Mkonda is Wanderers\u2019 second signing after striker <a href=\"http:\/\/www.times.mw\/wanderers-sign-babatunde\/\">Babatunde Adepoju,<\/a> who was also with Masters in the 2018 season.<\/p>\n<p>The Lali Lubani Road club is beefing up its squad after the departure of midfielders Yamikani Chester and Joseph Kamwendo, and defender Precious Sambani.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Arkangel Tembo, Contributor: Fisd Challenge Cup champions Be Forward Wanderers have signed Masters Security midfielder Francis Mkonda on a three-year contract at an undisclosed fee. Wanderers have moved quickly to snatch the 2018 TNM Super League Midfielder of the Season who was also on the wanted list of other big clubs. Mkonda, who was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":74056,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-74052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":74057,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74052\/revisions\/74057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}