After turning down an opportunity to sign Patrick Maswanganyi before SuperSport United, it has been revealed how Kaizer Chiefs also missed out on Relebohile Mofokeng.
Before and while training with SuperSport United, Chiefs were offered a chance to sign or invite Maswanganyi for a trial several times, after the left-footed attacker returned from playing in the lower divisions in Portugal.
However, Amakhosi, during former coach Arthur Zwane's era did not show any interest and after a long spell training with Matsatsantsa, Gavin Hunt eventually gave 'Tito' his breakthrough in the PSL in August 2022.
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After just one good debut campaign at United, the Stars of Africa academy graduate was signed by Pirates, where he has emerged as one of the best players in the country.
It has now emerged that the Glamour Boys were also alerted of Mofokeng when he was 13, turning heads in his township of Sharpeville.
The nimble-footed attacker built a name for himself from an early age in the football circles largely thanks to sports photographer Pitsi 'Vino Snap' Matlou, who has a passion for unearthing unknown talent in remote areas.
"It's the passion that drives me, it's the love of helping other people that is driving me. For now, I'm travelling around at my own cost, identifying players, profiling them, creating videos, editing. You know how difficult that is. Now they see a player through Vino, take the player, now I'm done, God saw my effort, I sleep peacefully," 'Vino Snap' said in an interview on 947's MSW.
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"With Rele, I first spotted him, I think he was 13, I remember calling some of the scouts at Kaizer Chiefs to say, 'Hey, guys you need to come to Sharpeville, there's this young boy here doing magic. Fast forward it's 2022, he's at School of Excellence but I'm hosting a tournament and one of the teams invited him, fast forward I'm seeing talent I've never seen before.
"Even on my posts I told them I'm seeing the prime Thulani Serero in this kid. So 'my people in football please come do something with this boy'. Our relationship [with Mofokeng] is good. I'm a supportive person, Rele doesn't owe me anything. I did that through my own will. Seeing him do what he's doing now makes me really happy," the famous photographer added.
After being signed by the Buccaneers from SAFA/Transnet School of Excellence, Mofokeng continued to rise in popularity in the DStv Diski Challenge before got his senior debut towards the end of the 2022/23 season.
