Keanu Cupido is currently one of the best players in the Premiership – but it would not have been the case if the defender did not make the costly sacrifice of leaving home at the age of 13 – something that not only shaped his character, but also defined him as a footballer.
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The calls for Cupido to be included in Hugo Broos' national team setup is growing louder by the day, given how influential the 25-year-old has been for coach Eric Tinkler's Cape Town City side this season.
Having burst onto the scene five years ago under then coach Benni McCarthy, Cupido, who hails from Eldorado Park in the south of Johannesburg has grown in leaps in bounds at the Citizens, where he has been touted as a future club captain.
Very few people know that Cupido hails from the Diambars Academy, whose links to France saw him spend some time in the Ajaccio B team, as a teenager.
Cupido reflects on this chapter as one that defined him as person and taught him the value of sacrifice from a young age.
"I left home at the age of 13. So for me to get away from my parents and to get away from my comfort zone was a good thing for me. I felt like it shaped me into the person I am today. Even now, being away from home, I don't miss home at all. I'm used to being away from home from a very young age," he told the Siya crew in an exclusive interview.
"Like even when I went to France I didn't miss home very much, just the first few weeks you miss home, but other than that, you get used to being away from home. At Diambars Academy, I left early, I had a good development which helped me football wise, academically and just me sacrificing my family.
"I learned at a young age to sacrifice a lot in life. At a young age you want to go to matric dances, you wanna go to parties, I sacrificed all this for football. So, when I went to [the] u17 national team, it was actually just a continuation, something better and I learned to play with the best players at your age and then you go into CAF, playing with the best players on the continent and then you go and play against the best players in the world in that age group.
"So, you learn a lot about football, different cultures, languages. So, when I went to France it was a whole different world football-wise, so I had to adjust as soon as possible and that helped me a lot because I was used to being away from home.
"I just enjoyed my time in France with the football, the food, and the language and I learned a lot from those people like the French type of football, which is a lot more physical, more technical but yeah I learned a lot," he explained.
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