Carlos Amato: Rafa Benitez may be a canny tactician, but how nifty is his juju? Tomorrow night in the World Club Cup final, the embattled Inter Milan coach could get a tutorial in Congolese wizardry from TP Mazembe.
The magicians in question are not "special projects" consultants, but the players themselves. Dioko Kaluyitaka and Papy Kabangu's stupendous goals in Mazembe's 2-0 win over South American champions Internacional served to notify the world that earning a club salary in Europe is not the only viable career path for excellent African players.
Mazembe are no ordinary African club, but they are harnessing the ordinary magic of money well spent. The Lubumbashi giants' salary budget is reportedly about R75-million a year - a fraction of Inter's, but substantially more than that of Mamelodi Sundowns.
The man paying those hefty bills is the club chairman, Moise Katumbi, a 45-year-old tycoon and governor of Katanga province.
A charismatic maverick, he has been dubbed "Africa's Obama" due to his mixed heritage: his mother was Congolese and his father was a Sephardic Jewish immigrant from the Aegean island of Rhodes. Due to President Mobutu's ban on non-African surnames, he adopted his maternal grandfather's surname.
Katumbi started making bucks at age 14, by selling fish, and never stopped. Since his election as governor in 2007, Katumbi has raised eyebrows by banning the export of unrefined ore, thus requiring mining companies to create more jobs by building processing plants in the province.
So far, the move is paying off.
Katumbi is also building a hydropower network, requiring mining giants to plant food crops and slashing red tape. He may be part of a long line of greedy big men in African politics, but at least he's a greedy big man who gets things done.
And for Mazembe, Katumbi's largesse has revived the continental glories that earned them their prefix "Tout Puissant" ("almighty" in French). This year's clobbering of Esperance saw the Crows defend their African crown for the second time in their history: they captured successive African championships back in 1967 and 1968, when known as TP Englebert.
Crucially, Mazembe are able to refuse cheap-skate European offers for top-class talents like Tresor Mputu, partly because Katumbi doesn't need a few paltry million, but also because he pays his stars lavishly enough to keep them happy.
Moreover, the depth of talent is rich: Mazembe have reached this pinnacle without the services of Mputu and midfielder Guy Lusadisu, who are both serving a year-long ban for chasing and kung-fu kicking an Ethiopian referee early in the Champions League campaign.
Mazembe's heroics this week have been even all the more thrilling because they've been guided by an African coach, the Senegalese Lamine N'Diaye. Not that Africa doesn't need talented European or South American coaches who are in for the long haul. But it's good to see a black face in the Mazembe technical area on this momentous night for African football.
The final will be screened live on SuperSport 7 at 7pm. Inter will probably conquer, but it's best not to miss this one. Something wonderful could happen.
•Carlos Amato is the SAB Sports Columnist of The Year.
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