Real deal: Abbubaker Mobara
THE REAL MAKOYA
Orlando Pirates failed to vie for top honours in the league but will try to salvage something from this season when they contest the Nedbank Cup final against SuperSport United.
The reason they’re there comes down to Abbubaker Mobara.
The combative Pirates midfielder scored the only goal of the semifinal against the Golden Arrows. Though the Buccaneers dominated the match for long periods, they struggled to convert their chances until Mobara popped up for the only goal, which earns him this week’s gong as the Real Makoya.
With Pirates celebrating their 80th anniversary this year, it was the ambitions of Mobara and the rest of the black-and-white to snatch the league championship in particular. Instead they find themselves in unfamiliar territory, outside the top eight for the first time since the advent of the Premier Soccer League.
“Things have not gone accordingly,” admitted Mobara. “We would have preferred to end the season as champions and have another go at the CAF [Confederation of African Football] Champions League.
“Personally, I started my career at Pirates on a very slow footing and I took longer to adapt than Riyaad [Norodien] because he was here a month before me. However, after a while, I was up on my feet and I had my priorities in place, like goals, ambitions and what I wanted to achieve.”
Things went pear-shaped for Pirates under coach Muhsin Ertugral, who resigned following a humiliating 6-1 pasting from SuperSport. With the perennial caretaker coach Augusto Palacios roped in to steady the ship, to no avail, the Sea Robbers eventually settled on Kjell Jonevret, who is slowly trying to regain the Soweto outfit’s giant stature.
For Mobara, the journey to fight for a starting berth and play regularly is starting to take shape. “I made a decision to start pushing harder at training, start making a difference and contribute to the team as much as possible,” Mobara said.