Walter Bwalya: Congolese International every word said on his Al Ahly career after loan move to Yeni Malatyaspor
Walter Bwalya joined Al Ahly from Egyptian Premier League side El Gouna in January 2021 but the Dr Congo forward struggled to live up to expectation in the Cairo Stadium.
He managed five goals, three assists in 31 games in the ended season after seeing hie club Al Ahly lose the Egyptian Premier League title to Zamalek.
With Ahly strengthening their attacking lines ahead of this season- that starts this weekend, Bwalya has been loaned to Yeni Malatyaspor for a new challenge.
The Congolese completed a season long loan move to the Turkish outfit early this month until the end of this season.
And he was unused sub in Yeni Malatyaspor’ 3-4 home loss to Fatin Karagumruk last Friday.
Bwalya has said he wants to come back to Ahly when his loan deal expires. He said in an interview with Egyptian Premier League TV sponsors ON Time Sport.
The 26-year old also talked about transfer offers before joining Ahly with the likes of Simba SC were interested in signing him. Follow his full interview below;
“I had some offers like Simba during my time with El Gouna, but because of my performance, Al Ahly contacted me again, and I decided to stay in Egypt and join them,” Bwalya told OnTime Sport TV.
“I was very happy when I joined Al Ahly, as it’s a great team in Africa and it was a great opportunity to wear the Al Ahly jersey and to be presented as a player in its ranks.
“During my time at Al Ahly, I wasn’t at 100% of my form, which the fans expected from me. But I think I did some good things for the team and put a smile on the faces of Al Ahly fans.
“Football is round, it’s the same in all clubs with the same weight and the same dimensions, some days the wind comes in your sail, and some days it comes against you. It’s god’s plan and its destiny, I do my best but this is football, I perform but I can’t understand what happened.
“I’m a professional player and accept things as they are. I didn’t understand Al Ahly’s culture before I came and I had to spend some time to understand this culture. There were some things that I had to learn from this team.
“It’s possible for a striker to play and perform but not score. I don’t blame anyone for what happened, but maybe I didn’t understand Al Ahly’s culture. I was under pressure. I’m honest, and as a striker, my job is to score goals, and if I don’t score I’m under pressure.
“Every house has a special spirit for this place. In my house, my father sets the rules and instructions. For me, it took some time to understand Al Ahly and what I had to do, but the more time I spent, the more I understood these rules and instructions and that spirit in the team.
“The striker is the one who tries and scores, if he doesn’t score then he’s not a striker. Of course, in every game, my goal was to score goals and make the team win or make assists. I can shoot on goal and score goals and I was helping the team.
“I think the reason for my departure is wasn’t the missed chances, but in the end, I got less playing time and the coach’s confidence in me decreased too, and that’s football.
“I’m not someone who gives up and I am not ashamed of my missed goals. I did what I had to do to put the ball in the goal, and every time I either scored or missed. In El-Gouna I was the top scorer and I scored every time but I was also missing chances, but no one paid attention to that because I scored in every game.
“It’s normal for a striker to miss some chances but at the same time, there is an added value for any striker when he scores more than he misses. I gave my best and tried a lot to make the fans happy,” he added.
Bwalya then opened up about his relationship with head coach Pitso Mosimane and attacking partners Mohamed Sherif and Marwan Mohsen.
“Mosimane trusted all of us. I prefer to talk about myself and not about other people. What’s in the past remains in the past, but our relationship was good,” he continued.
“To be frank, I didn’t want to leave Al Ahly, but this is what happened. A whole season during which I scored only one goal. I scored at the end of the season when the opportunity came and I began to show my abilities as a goalscorer, but I got to a point where I couldn’t do anything. So I can’t argue with the decision and I have to go my own way.
“Maybe I will return to Al Ahly and maybe move to another place, but I certainly did not want to leave it. I am not a failure, I always give my best and do my best, and always try to live up to the expectations of my fans.
“My relationship with Mohamed Sherif was good, the same can be said for Marwan Mohsen. I’m a person who likes to have good relationships, and I always encouraged my colleagues.
“When I saw Sherif not scoring, I encouraged him to relieve the pressure, and I’m not jealous at all. I would give them passes to score, football is not about one person, but a team.
“It’s an honor for me to wear the Al Ahly shirt and I respect the club very much. We must look forward. If I scored 15 or 20 goals and had another opportunity to move to a big team, why not? I don’t know what the future holds, but now I’m an Al Ahly player on loan Malatyaspor.
“Al Ahly has a great group of players with a good mentality, based on winning. The team always has one thing in mind, victory. And its players always think that they will become champions,” he explained.
Bwalya moved to Al Ahly from league rivals El-Gouna and revealed the strong relationship he has with his former coach Reda Shehata.
“My relationship with El Gouna since I set foot there has been very good, with everyone involved with the club,” he revealed.
“I send my regards to coach Reda Shehata, and when things got more difficult at Al Ahly, he used to talk to me constantly and always wanted to see me at the top. No one spoke to me about returning, but everyone in El Gouna, especially, Reda Shehata, wished me the best. Every time I scored, Shehata would text me and congratulate me on that.
“Everything happens for a reason and we learn lessons from it. My stats were great in my first 5 matches, but that doesn’t mean that when I moved to Al Ahly I stopped doing what I was doing with El Gouna.
“I don’t know why, maybe it was luck, but what I do know is that I gave everything I had.
“If I play a match without scoring, I may not sleep until dawn and watch the match and my shots so I know what happened,” he concluded.
