Clube Desportivo Estrela Vermelha de Maputo was crowned winner of the Maputo City Football Championship, a competition that ended last Friday..

The ?orange ones? dominated the race from start to finish and were already champions with one day to go, confirming their determination in the fight to return to Moçambola, which will begin this Saturday or on October 8 with the poule in the three regions of the country.

Estrela Vermelha's coach, Chaquir Bemat, quoted by Desafio newspaper, said that the focus is on Moçambola, a desire also expressed by the club's president, Luís Manhique.

In fact, Estrela were in the 2022 group, but didn't make it past the first phase. Chaquir took over the team on the seventh matchday and managed to pull it up to third position, ultimately benefiting from the fact that Black Bulls ?B?, who were second, were unable to take part in an access competition to Moçambola, where the main team is already.

When I took over the team last year, Red Star were in 12th place with a 12-point gap to first place. But we managed to get within two points of the leaders (Matchedje) and one point of the second-placed team (Black Bulls ?B?). We went to the group stage, but we didn't have the success we wanted. And that's how we started to see what we lacked in order to have a competitive team that could bring us better quality. We lacked some quality and maturity in some players and that was acceptable until the moment I arrived, because Estrela had a project that consisted of taking kids who came from juniors after two years without competition because of Covid-19," he said.