Everyone loves a good fairytale story and topflight rookies Magesi are currently providing one for the lovers of the beautiful game.
Two days after confirming a spot in the Carling Knockout final, the players probably still need to be pinched to remind themselves that it's not a dream. It's a reality and they did it with guts and guile.
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Hardly given a chance to get past the last 16 after they were drawn to face Jose Riveiro's cup specialists Orlando Pirates, Magesi stunned the nation with a victory at Orlando Stadium and have not looked back since then, winning all their matches away from home to book themselves a spot on a plane to the Free State, where the mighty Mamelodi Sundowns will be waiting in what could be one of the most memorable finals.
Their story to topflight football, and the cup final, is one of sheer determination. Chairman Solly Makhubela named the club after his late father and, 13 years after being established, the club has faced ups and downs that not many have overcome.
After winning promotion to the National First Division (now Motsepe Foundation Championship) for the 2016/17 campaign, they were relegated after just one season, going back down to the ABC Motsepe League. Five years later, they returned to the Motsepe Foundation Championship and, in their second campaign in the second tier, they won promotion to the topflight.
With Clinton Larsen at the helm, Magesi should feel that they have a chance of recording one of the biggest cup final upsets in history. It was Larsen who was in charge of Bloemfontein Celtic when Phunya Sele Sele edged Sundowns 1-0 in the final of this very same competition in 2012. At the time, the competition was known as the Telkom Knockout and Joel Mogorosi was the hero with the only goal of the game to hand Larsen his first and only major knockout competition trophy.
Twelve years later, Larsen will have another opportunity to put himself into the history books and it will be against the same club he stunned all those years ago.
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The club has also helped revive the careers of the likes of Edmore Chirambadare, Limbikani Mzava, Deolin Mekoa and captain Elvis Chipezeze, who has bagged the man of the match award three times in the competition.
There are some clubs that have had to wait years to reach a knockout competition final, but Magesi has done it within a few months of being a topflight outfit. And there could still be more to come from them.
By Tshepang Mailwane
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