Legends: Maccabi FC has been promoted to the National First Division (Delwyn Verasamy)
In their heyday, with fans screaming their names in packed-out stadiums, three former internationals would vacillate between banging in goals and delivering bone-crunching tackles with the precision of prima ballerinas.
Those days are fading, but the skills and technique developed over a lifetime of football has now placed these three former foes at the heart of newly promoted National First Division (NFD) side Maccabi FC.
Former Kaizer Chiefs star striker Collins Mbesuma (34), former Orlando Pirates dribbling wizard Lebogang “Cheese Boy” Mokoena (32) and former Jomo Cosmos no-nonsense centre back Thapelo Tshilo (33) are adding value with their vast experience to the NFD newbies. Their contribution influenced the team’s performance in recent weeks.
Ironically, these three stalwarts are being coached by a man they hated playing against — former Jomo Cosmos and Kaizer Chiefs defender Mokete Tsotetsi, a man Mokoena and Mbesuma still bemoan as the “roughest and dirtiest” defender they ever had to deal with.
Pirates’ former dribbling wizard Lebogang Mokoena (Delwyn Verasamy)
“He kicked us a lot, this one,” says Mokoena, who is at the team’s training base in Sunninghill, north of Johannesburg. They had just finished a gruelling training session, where Mbesuma was doing what he’s known for — banging in the goals.
A day earlier, Maccabi had beaten Orlando Pirates 2-1 in a practice match at the Rand Stadium, with Mbesuma and Mokoena scoring against their former club.
“No doubt, Collins still has the class. You should have seen the way he killed Pirates yesterday. Then we have ‘Cheese’. He never lost any of his skills,” says team manager and co-owner James Ndlovu.
The trio have played in some of the most difficult games in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) and, incidentally, also for defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns.
Mbesuma, a Zambian international, is still hailed as the player with the most goals in a season, after scoring 35 goals for Chiefs back in 2004, helping the Glamour Boys to win the league title for the first time in 12 years.
At the time, Mokoena, newly promoted from the Pirates development structures, mesmerised defenders with his clever on-the-ball technique that left opponents gasping for air, whereas Tshilo and Tsotetsi kept things tight at the back for Cosmos.
On top of Mbesuma’s record of 35 goals, he also still holds the title of being the only player in the PSL to have top-scored twice, after hitting 14 goals while still with Highlands Park two seasons ago.
“After that I got injured. I don’t think I was given enough chance to recover and I left the club on my own accord because I wanted to recover fully. So I opted to sign with Maccabi, who were playing in the [third-tier] ABC Motsepe League at the time,” he recalls.
PSL clubs such as Bloemfontein Celtic were believed to be after his services, but the need to be closer to his family in Gauteng forced him to settle for the lower leagues. His experience would play a critical role in helping the team to gain promotion to the NFD.
Ex-Chiefs striker Collins Mbesuma (Delwyn Verasamy)
Mokoena has a similar story and believes he was not accorded a fair chance to prove himself at Sundowns after he recovered from a knee injury that kept him out of the game for the most part of the 2015-2016 season.
“Other players got injured, but were allowed to get back into action immediately after recovering. But for me it was different. Even in the last game of the season, where I had hoped I would at least get a few-minute run, it never happened,” he says.
He was then, at the recommendation of coach Roger de Sa, signed by Ajax Cape Town but, five games later, De Sa quit the team.
“I think the new coach [Stanley Menzo] preferred mostly players from the development structures, so I eventually left the club. It was difficult to get a new team because many clubs looked at age and the fact that I had not played in a long time. That’s the problem in South Africa; people are more concerned with your age, [rather] than what you can do.”
Maccabi captain Tshilo, a former South Africa Under-23 player, also joined Downs after his successful stint with Cosmos, but spent the past six seasons at Polokwane City.
He agrees with Mokoena’s statement that most clubs don’t give older players a chance, because they fear that they might be expensive.
“I think experience can intimidate clubs. Their problem is not the age, but the fear that, because you have played for big clubs before, you will be expensive,” says Tshilo.
Mokoena chips in: “You know, before I came here, I trained with Highlands Park and it looked set that I was going to be signed but in the last minute I was told the side has [instead] signed a defender because they can’t afford me. It would have been nicer if they had asked me first how much I wanted and see if it matched their budget.”
For Mbesuma, playing is “even better” when you are older.
“That’s when you enjoy the game, actually. Because you have learnt many things and have been trained by different coaches and played with different players … sometimes even locally and abroad.”
Rough and ready: Coach Mokete Tsotetsi is a name the three veterans remember with respect from his days as a defender (Delwyn Verasamy)
Asked what he thinks of the trio being the only PSL-experienced players in the team and the effect that has on the youngsters, Mokoena says: “We are here to improve certain things. Today’s football requires a lot of running, which the youngsters do well, but we provide the thinking. We stabilise things.”
And for Tsotetsi, having the three veterans on his side “will go a long way” towards turning the young side into a formidable force in the future.
“It’s nice to coach the guys I used to play with. We respect each other and the youngsters learn a lot from them. These [older] guys have turned this place into a happy family,” he says.