Loyalty has paid off for Polokwane City striker Puleng Marema who has been with the club through thick and thin.
Ever since his days known as Tlolane, the forward has been scoring goals for Rise and Shine and despite the interest previously shown in him, he has been loyal to the club.
Marema has seen the Limpopo outfit getting promoted to the DStv Premiership, following their 4-0 win over Pretoria Callies.
City finished on 57 points and were tied with Cape Town Spurs who played a 1-1 draw with the University of Pretoria on the final day of the season.
Marema has explained what has kept him at the club all these years.
The Good
"The team is back in the topflight and we are all excited about that. We have worked so hard for this season and we wanted this to happen for some time. We were never given a chance to make it and a lot of people had written us off. I spoke to the guys yesterday after we had our breakfast and I told them that all that we needed to do was to win our game and forget about the other teams and God would take care of everything else. If you remember when we were first promoted in the 2012/13 season, the team had been from number three. Against this season, we moved from position three to the top and got promoted after the last game of the season. We wanted to avoid going to the play-offs. People had doubts about us because we were chasing two teams but we remained positive. In football, anything can happen and didn't stop believing. We knew that the other teams that we were competing with could drop points and that is what happened," said Marema.
The Bad
"A lot has been said about my loyalty to the club and people will always have something to say. The other players left when we got relegated and I remained because of my good relationship with the chairman. This team got me from nowhere and they gave me a chance to play professional football and I will forever be grateful to them. Yes, I did think about leaving at some point. When we got relegated, I received offers from a few clubs and I sat down with my family to discuss them. I did feel like I was not ready to drop to the second tier league but after discussing the issue with my family and the chairman, I decided that I didn't really have to leave. The chairman was clear to me that we needed to try and get the club back to the big league. As footballers, sometimes we get wrong advice from wrong people. I had some people telling me that I should leave the club and that I didn't deserve to be playing in the second tier and so on. The unfortunate thing is that all those people didn't know the relationship that I had with the chairman. That's why I stayed with the team," he said.
The Ugly
"I just want to play football and it doesn't matter where. I am a footballer and I knew that I would play here and that's why I decided to stay. It wasn't easy to come back to the big league. We have been trying and things were just not happening and it was difficult. We kept on pushing and I'm happy we finally got it right. My loyalty paid off and I'm grateful to have a supportive chairman like our chairman. I thank the chairman for everything he has done for me," the forward added.
I Could Not Betray The Chairman
"I have been with this club from day one and maybe that's one of the reasons it hasn't been easy for me to leave. For other players, it can be different because they came from elsewhere. Also, if they get offers from elsewhere it can't be difficult for them to leave. Yes, it was painful to see my former teammates leaving after we got relegated but I felt that I could not betray the chairman like that because he gave me the opportunity when on one else did," concluded Marema.
