The story behind Orlando Pirates' new star, Patrick Maswanganyi, coming through the ranks as a youngster to be where he is today is an interesting and emotional one as best narrated by his mentor Farouk Khan.
Maswanganyi has been one of the in-form players for Pirates this season and his sublime performances have been notable, having won the Man of the Match award in the most recent match – the 2-0 victory against Cape Town City on Tuesday, where he also scored a goal to add to that of Zakhele Lepasa.
Khan, who is a renowned youth and top coach, has detailed how the journey has been for the 25-year-old since he started working him at the Stars of Africa Academy back in those days.
The Good
"As you know, Stars of Africa have over the years sent several players abroad if you think about the likes of Tokelo Rantie, May Mahlangu and many others. Tito (Maswanganyi), as we know him, was one of those boys who went abroad. He was brought to me a number of years ago by one of my colleagues Arnold Rankoko who works for SuperSport as one of the vernacular commentators. He brought the boy from Tembisa and he said to me, "Coach, have a look at this boy and see what you can do." I liked what I saw. Firstly, he was very coachable. He didn't have the attributes of a complete player but what I liked about him was his humility and his ability to want to learn. He worked with me at the academy while going to school and after about six years with us, I convinced my partner Mr Nadiem Mahmood to take him to Portugal, which he did. He played for one of the third division teams at the time and Tito was doing well and improving all the time. Unfortunately, none of the bigger teams in Portugal showed interest and Tito decided to come back home. Arnold took him to SuperSport when Andre Arendse was still the coach and he liked him a lot. When Gavin (Hunt) became the coach, Andre recommended Tito and as they say, the rest is history. He's got a bight future and I am proud of him," said Khan.
The Bad
"It wasn't easy for Tito to be where he is. Because we are an academy without a sponsor, he had to also make some sacrifices. He had to do a lot of work on the field in our own way to help him with gym work in the absence of a way to get him to a gymnasium. It was a huge effort from both the side of Tito and Stars of Africa. There are future Titos out there and we are keen to produce them but unfortunately sponsors do not want to invest to enable us to do that. I mean, we had our team of young players that won the Pirates Cup and those 15-year-old boys are phenomenal players. At the end of the day, I just have to hope and pray that when the time comes somebody will give us something back," the coach said.
The Ugly
When Maswanganyi had to return to Mzansi signing a big club in Portugal
"He was very disappointed and I think to a large extent I don't blame him. He had stayed for more than two years in Portugal and we had to pay the expenses and stuff because the Portuguese clubs never paid for everything. They never paid for accommodation, food and everything. So, we were also disappointed because we had put out of our pockets hundreds of thousands of rands. But we believed in him and that's why we paid the money we did," concluded Khan.
Will Mswanganyi be the next big Pirates and Bafana star?
