The 21-year-old Mahlambi became the first South African player to make a move to Egypt when he join Ahly from Bidvest Wits in September last year, but it was not happy stay for the speedy player.
About a year after making the move, Mahlambi is back in South Africa in the colours of Sundowns.
Sundowns are believed to have paid $900,000 (R13,2-million) for Mahlambi, giving him a five-year deal.
Coach Pitso Mosimane, who has been chasing the player since his days at Wits, recently said Mahlambi is an investment, considering his age.
This move back to Mzansi came after he trained alone having requested the transfer request, citing lack of game with 12 league appearances with the return of one goal.
But his return to familiar surrounding, according to Mahlambi, he said it is about to rebirth himself and recapture the old form he had when he joined Ahly.
“I don't think I failed [in Egypt]. Obviously people will have different opinions of I failed or what,” said the soft-spoken Mahlambi.
“But from my side, my coming back was to start all over again and prepare for a new chapter that will take me to another level. Because when I was there everything was good, but I think it was time for me to come back and get the game time and return to the performance I was at when I left the country.”
Mahlambi scored on debut in a 3-3 draw with AmaZulu on Sunday and played the entire 90 minutes. He’s put the past behind him and he is looking forward to making a mark at Sundowns
“I don't want to put myself under pressure and give myself a task of scoring a certain number of goals come end of the season,”
“All i can say is that I want to score goals that will see the team win, that will see us all happy as players of Sundowns. So I won't say how many goals I want to score because at the end of the day when I say I want to score this number of goals, if I don't reach them, people will say you promised us to score this number of goals.”
“So what is better is, I'll score whenever i can.”
