Mozambique coach, PSL great Pelembe’s feud continues

It appears there is no end in sight to the feud between Mozambique coach Chiquinho Conde and sidelined captain Elias Pelembe.

The Mambas mentor has reacted to Pelembe’s letter justifying his failure to honour a call-up last year.

The winger, considered among South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) greats, wrote the letter to the coach in reaction to his exclusion from Mozambique’s squad for the forthcoming World Cup qualifiers.

The 41-year-old made a name in the PSL after featuring in 363 games spread across teams such as Sundowns, Bidvest Wits, SuperSport United and Royal AM. He returned home last year to continue his career for club and country. But his relationship with the national coach has been strained.

Now, Conde has responded to the letter, faulting Pelembe for using the wrong platform after releasing his letter through the media.

“With all due respect to the media and Dominguez, firstly, the letter was an unnecessary situation; it was enough, because I don’t handle matters in the media,” Conde is quoted saying by Mozambique’s Lance website reports.

“With all the respect I have, I have enormous affection for Dominguez, the Mozambican people do too, he deserves to end with dignity, but I’m not the one who’s going to end his career.

“Obviously, he wrote the letter, that’s not where I was convinced he would turn, a phone call and a conversation would have been enough, because that’s what happens in our environment, within our national team, but things have turned that way, look, I think he needs better advice.”

The coach said he respects Pelembe and that is why he recalled him to the national team upon being appointed as coach after his predecessors Luís Gonçalves and Horácio Gonçalves had dropped the former SuperSport United winger.

Earlier, Conde told the media last week that he had decided against taking on board the former Royal AM attacker because he had not reached out to him explain his failure to honour national team call-ups.

In a response, Pelembe has issued a statement clarifying the administrative challenges that prevented him from reporting for national team duty in the recent past. He currently plays for União Desportiva de Songo.

“I am writing to you solely to clarify, formally and with documentation, the reasons why I was unable to receive my passport in time to complete bureaucratic tasks related to the preparations for the matches against the Ugandan and Algerian national teams on March 20th and 25th, corresponding to the fifth and sixth rounds of qualifying for the 2026 World Cup,” the letter reads.

Dominguez explained that he learned about his recent past call up on March 11 2025 while at his Tete base, but only received is passport three days later due to flight problems.

“While it was not possible to send the passport from Tete to Maputo, Mr. Énio Zaíze, coordinator of the national team, was fully informed of what was happening. Upon receiving information that the document was already in Maputo, Mr. Énio Zaíze replied that it was no longer necessary because the national coach had called up another colleague to take my place,” Pelembe added.

“The reasons why my passport did not arrive on time at the Mozambican Football Federation (FMF) were, in real time, within the control of the national team’s administrative structure and the FMF Board.”

The PSL legend stressed that he has always taken pride in representing the Mambas.

“I have represented the national team since 2004 and, over the course of 21 years, and also while also serving as captain, I have been and always seek to be loyal to whoever is acting as national coach, member of the technical team, fellow athletes, the team’s administrative structure…,” the statement reads.

The 41-year-old is showing no signs of slowing down in his professional football career with UD Songo.

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