Following his release from Macarthur FC at the end of the 23/24 A-League season, Charles M’Mombwa spent eight months without a club.
His career in professional football was in jeopardy, as was his dream of representing his country again. Fortunately for the Tanzanian international, Rob Stanton came calling. After a few weeks of training with the club, the Jets offered Charles a contract. He soon made his debut, coming off the bench for an industrious 30-minute cameo in the Jets 2-2 draw with Perth Glory in Round 16 of the Isuzu Ute A-League.
“One of the key factors for me signing was speaking to Rob and Damir Prodanovic. I’ve known them for a while and they explained to me how the club is and what a good environment this place is. I came here, I trained for a couple of days and I just enjoyed myself. The environment is good, the boys are great. Everyone is very welcoming here. That’s one of the biggest factors that attracted me to the Jets.”
Joining a club mid-season can be difficult for a player. They have to pack up their life and move to a different city, adjust to a new training schedule and meet plenty of new faces. The latter of those won’t be much of an issue for Charles, having previously played with Lachlan Rose and Aleksandar Šušnjar at Macarthur Bulls FC.
“I know a couple of them already. Obviously a couple of the boys are from Sydney so we’ve come across each other before. Rosie, Šušnjar and I had played together for a couple of years (at Macarthur). I’ve known them for a while now.”
Having grown up in a football-mad family, Charles seemed destined to play football. His father was previously a professional footballer as well as a coach. Additionally, his brother also plays for Southern District Raiders in the NSW Football League One, the same division the Jets youth team will be participating in this year.
“I wouldn’t say he (his father) pushed me but obviously I’ve grown up in a footballing family. Obviously being around him, he played and also coached, so I’ve always been kind of around football. It just happened kind of naturally where I just grew into the game after being around it all the time. It wasn’t a push but definitely him being in the sport did help me a lot.”
“I’d probably say my father and my big brother have influenced me the most. My brother is now playing for SD Raiders in Sydney. Those two probably have had the biggest impact on my football just because they’ve been around the game and I’ve been around them a lot. They’re always driving me trying to get me to the best place that I can get to.”
Since following in his fathers footsteps of being a professional footballer, Charles has amassed more than 70 games of professional football across spells with both the Mariners and Macarthur. He has also represented his country, Tanzania, at senior international level. This includes playing against players such as Liverpool forward Mohammed Salah, who represents Egypt, as well as former Chelsea and Ajax winger Hakim Ziyech, who plays for Morocco. Additionally, Charles played at the African Cup of Nations in 2023.
“It was pretty surreal obviously. Just playing for my country was a big deal and a big achievement for myself and my family. Coming across players such as Ziyech and Salah was pretty crazy. It was pretty crazy but it was great to be able to share the field with people of that calibre and you know, try and learn as much as I could in that little time that we shared the pitch.”
When Charles isn’t at training, he likes to spend his free time with his family, which is something he considers one of the most important parts of his life.
“I like to spend time with my family. Family is very big for me. Whenever we get a day off, I drive down to Sydney just to spend some time with the family. That’s my therapy kind of thing away from the game.”
Despite the extended lay-off from football, Charles has joined Newcastle with a clear set of personal goals that he is aiming to achieve. He is also heavily focused on helping the team claim as many points as they possibly can.
“Obviously I’ve come in towards the middle of the season, but I want to try and get as many minutes as I can and try to help the team to get as many points as possible to try to push up the ladder. That’s probably one of my biggest goals that I’m going to try to achieve. On a personal note, I’m gonna try to get a lot of minutes and hopefully get a call-up back to the national team. That’d be great, especially with the African Cup of Nations coming up at the end of this year. It’d be awesome to get another call-up, that’s definitely a big goal of mine.”
