News broke last night that a former Lincoln player was in line to get the top job at the PFA, as Gordon Taylor steps down.
Some might have missed it as we went down 3-0 against Gillingham in a rather humiliating evening, but it is worth touching upon, mainly because I don’t want to have to write about actual football today. I’m taking defeats rather badly I’m afraid!
To summarise, Molango hasn’t actually got the job yet, an advisory panel has put his name forward for it, after he qualified as a lawyer post-football. He then spent four years working as chief executive of Spanish club Real Mallorca, which looks to have set him in good stead for a spell as the PFA chief, after Taylor steps down. It seems natural to have a former player take the role, but Molango is anything but run-of-the-mill.
The 38-year-old began his career with Atletico Madrid and appeared for SV Wacker before a move to Brighton in 2005. He bagged within 12 seconds of his debut as they lost away at Reading, but fell out with manager Mark McGhee after four Championship starts, and was told he could leave the club. His next destination was Sincil Bank on loan.
He was another of ‘the strikers of Keith Alexander’. Keith was a man who loved to give a forward a go, and Molango looked, on paper at least to be a real capture when he arrived. Yeo and Taylor-Fletcher had left the club and we needed a fresh outlook, with Molango one very much expected to bring goals.
he made his debut as we drew 1-1 with Northampton on the opening day of the 2005/06 season, going on to start five league games, and come from the bench five times. He didn’t bag in League Tow for us, but he did net once as we beat Crewe 5-1 in the League Cup. Fellow new strikers Gary Birch and Marvin Robinson also scored taking the shine off his efforts, and then then-Championship railwaymen even took their keeper off at half time
Sadly, in his 14 outings for the Imps he managed just that one goal. He appeared for the last time as we lost 2-1 to MK Dons in the FA Cup, before returning to the south coast once his loan spell was up. The following season he went to Oldham on loan in the division above, scoring once for them, and he wound down his English career with stints at Grays Atheltic and Wrexham. He even managed one more outing for the Seagulls, coming on for the infamous Georges Santos as they lost 3-1 at Carlisle.
The story of the goal-shy striker born in Switzerland doesn’t end there though. Having obtained an LL.B and B.A. Political Science from Charles III University of Madrid, he joined the employment law department of the Madrid office of Baker & McKenzie in 2007, and in 2008 he moved to the United States to study for the LL.M program in International Legal Studies at the American University Washington College of Law. He graduated in 2009 whilst also being the recipient of the college’s Rubin Scholarship. He played a bit of football too, turning out part-time for FC Villanueva del Pardillo and Unión Adarve. In 2016, he took over as chief executive of Real Mallorca, a role he left last year.
You might remember him as a decent, but ultimately flawed striker from a different era, but it seems the name Maheta Molango is going to mean a lot more to players, managers and maybe even fans once Taylor steps down.
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