Luvuyo Memela has opened up on some of the challenges he had to deal with in his career on the way to becoming a household name in local football with Orlando Pirates.
After all the high hopes he had about making his PSL debut in his home province in the Western Cape, all that remained just a dream for the Mbekweni-born player as he didn't get a chance at Ajax Cape Town (now Cape Town Spurs), having come through the club's development.
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Following a stint with Hanover Park in the second tier after he exited Ikamva in 2010, Memela thought he had a chance to finally make it with Chippa United who were vying for promotion to the topflight in the 2011/12 season.
However, as fate would have it, it didn't happen there too, with the 37-year-old saying he wasn't considered big enough to compete in the National First Division.
"After leaving Ajax disappointed, I went to Hanover Park for a trial, and it was when the NFD still had Coastal and Inland streams. The season was already in progress with about five games played, if I remember well and I scored on debut, and we won 2-0. Despite all the attempts, we got relegated at the end of the season. I had three goals for the season," said Memela, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
"From there, I went to Chippa United, and after only two games into the season the coach who I was signed under was fired, and we had Prof (Mlungisi Ngubane) taking over. Prof said my body was too small for the NFD. (Memela starts laughing) I remember this other game and it was on my birthday, Prof surprisingly put me on the starting line-up after I had been performing at training and in friendly games.
"I suspect that he had been told by someone to reward me with an appearance for the team in an official game. It was raining that day, and we had a corner kick early in the game and I went to take it. Because it was wet and the pitch was slippery, I slipped as I kicked the ball, and it didn't quite take the direction I intended it to take, and it ended up being a low shot that the opposition defenders cleared it easily," Memela added.
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"It was 15 minutes into the game when I saw the fourth official with the (substitution) boards going up and, in my mind, they were probably signalling time added before the end of the half, but I was wondering how come because it was still early. I was wearing number 2 in my jersey, so I thought we had 2 minutes to be added before half time. I looked again, and I saw this other former teammate of mine who was from KZN and happened to play in the same position as me, standing next to the fourth official and ready to come on. That was it, I was being substituted just like that.
"As I was going out, I was asking myself questions as to what I might have done wrong that early in the game. I was so disappointed. Mind you, my family was there. My mom and my daughter who was three years old then, were also in attendance. In consoling myself, I remembered that Prof had said that my body was too small for NFD. I ended up feeling the pressure of putting too much effort on gym work, and I couldn't rest as I even organised some self-made gym equipment using containers and cement and so on to work on my body structure. A big brother of mine who lived in Crossroads (a township outside of Cape Town) had some training equipment and that helped me a lot in my attempts to building my muscle. The chairman Chippa Mpengesi eventually came to me to tell me that the coach said he had no plans to use me in his team and I left the club," concluded Memela.
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By Masebe Qina
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