Keletso Makgalwa

The Mamelodi Sundowns forward reveals his journey to the first team at Chloorkop and his special bond with coach Pitso Mosimane.

“I HAD TO WORK TO GET TO WHERE I AM NOW AND NOT BE THE KIND OF PLAYER THAT I WAS WHEN I JOINED SUNDOWNS.”

Keletso Makgalwa is an emerging forward at Mamelodi Sundowns who has been slowly rising in prominence having been used as a weapon off the bench this season by coach Pitso Mosimane. He is keen for the fight and determined to prove that he is worthy of making his name at the club and winning silverware. He spoke to KICK OFF’s Lovemore Moyo.

When Keletso Makgalwa arrived at the 2014 SAB Under-21 Provincial Championships representing Limpopo, he was w an ambitious 17-year-old, pumped up as a much by the pace he had as his teenage enthusiasm. e

His gusto was driven by naivety at times, but there was no blaming him for that having never played in a structured football programme.

He was a kid who had played first team f football in the fourth-tier SAB League f from the age of 15, when he started out at Dynasty FC and then moved to Yster United.

“All I ever did to be able to compete at t that age was to outrun my opponents,” he c chuckles.

His selection to the SAB Championships held in the North West province that year c came on the back of impressive showings for United.

Sundowns had their scouts watching a and didn’t need much convincing to invite t the speedster from Mahwelereng to their a academy in Tshwane.

After the successful trials he was transferred t to Clapham High School in Pretoria as a Grade 11 student, where he won t the Kay Motsepe Schools Cup and finished as t the tournament top scorer.

In the same year he arrived, he was s selected to play for South Africa at the 2015 Durban Under-19 International Football T Tournament, where he caught the attention of o Pitso Mosimane.

Mosimane didn’t hesitate to take the teenage t forward to the Uthungulu Mayoral Cup C in Richards Bay, where he scored in the final. fi

Although he couldn’t join the first team full f time that year after Mosimane advised he focuses on completing his schooling first, he was handed some appearances in the MultiChoice Diski Challenge for the 2015/16 season. s

For the next MDC season, he turned on t the heat in leading the Sundowns reserves to t the title and was deservedly named the MDC Player of the Season.

After the campaign, Makgalwa was selected for the South Africa squad that played at the 2017 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in South Korea, where Amajita finished bottom of Group D.

But his progress continued as after the global finals, he was promoted to the Sundowns first team as the 2017/18 season started.

“Considering where I started, I feel I have every reason to be proud to be at the stage that I have reached. The most important thing for any human being is progress,” he said. “You cannot be forever in one place, so I had to work to get to where I am now and not be the kind of player that I was when I joined Sundowns.

“I still want to do more and earn my place at Sundowns where I have a mountain to climb. Where I am now is not enough, even though it is a ‘so far, so good’ measure. This is still work in progress because I have been taking steps all the time since I first joined the club’s development.

“I am glad my family back home is happy with the progress that I have made since they know my story better. I have always wanted to play football and they encouraged me well.

“My parents have always been on my side and have always advised me well about life in general. My dad understands a football career because he has seen those that played in the past from back home and what has become of them now,” says Makgalwa.

‘The coronavirus break wasn’t kind’

Since his promotion to the first team he has had to take baby steps towards getting a regular run.

This is all understandable considering that Sundowns is a club with sound financial backing and able to buy players both locally and internationally, even though they have their own development.

“My brother, you just have to work hard and do what you can to the best of your abilities, and everything will be alright eventually. About Sundowns buying players, I cannot comment on that

because all that I can do from my side is work hard and show the coach how much I want to play, while doing what he wants from me. I just need to do my work, score goals and then all else will fall into place,” he notes.

The tiny forward wearing jersey number 26 is justified to feel annoyed about the disruption that the coronavirus has brought to domestic football – now frozen for threeand-a-half months and counting.

He scored the winner as Sundowns got past Highlands Park in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals, the last match The Brazilians played back on March 14, having returned from another injury a few weeks earlier.

“The coronavirus enforced break wasn’t kind to me because it came at a time when I was coming back from injury, so it has affected me badly. It all happened that my confidence was high after I had scored against Highlands Park.

“It messed up my confidence because I was looking forward to playing in the next match and then taking it a step forward from there. However, since we are not in control of the situation, we cannot do anything other than just wait for everything to get sorted,” he says.

This is a season that has always been promising far better rewards for Makgalwa than others since his promotion to the first team.

After strangely seeing his loan deal at Maritzburg United cut short midway through last term, despite making 19 appearances, he made an impression in pre-season at Sundowns, which swayed the club into changing their initial plan of loaning him out again.

‘10 goals and 10 assists’

So far, 13 appearances with a return of three goals gives hope that he can kick-on to greater heights.

“I want more and that is why I stress. You cannot be in professional football and be just going to play for the sake of it and be saying that you will do better next season.

It doesn’t work like that.

“For example, as soon as the season starts, I am already working towards trying to make sure that I have 10 goals and 10 assists, and I contribute towards the team winning silverware. You can’t say that you are playing football and you don’t have goals that you want to reach.

“In my case, I am very far from reaching my goals, but I believe I will get there. For now, with the minutes I got, I think it is encouraging to have scored the ones that I have managed to, but as a person you always have goals. To reach my goals, I must work hard,” he notes.

“During pre-season I worked my socks off and scored goals, which meant the coach saw that there is something here. If you work hard, everything changes. While we were in pre-season there was the AFCON and we had six to seven players away at the tournament, so the numbers at pre-season were less.

“IT MESSED UP MY CONFIDENCE BECAUSE I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO PLAYING IN THE NEXT MATCH AND THEN TAKING IT A STEP FORWARD FROM THERE.”

“That is when I told myself that this is my chance to show the coach that

I can play. There was no way I wasn’t going to take advantage of this opportunity. I had to do extras and when the season started, I was part of the team and this was all to do with what I had done in pre-season.

“I even went on to score my first goal in the first team and this was all down to pushing my work.

“With regards to Maritzburg, I would like to think that I was maybe affected by the change of coaches. I don’t have the full details of what happened there, but it was a great lesson for me, and I am grateful it happened,” explains Makgalwa.

Mosimane’s influence

It is worth noting the influence that Mosimane has had on the former youth international. Their bond is evident from how he celebrates his goals.

“The bond … it is all down to the things that he tells me, some of which are so deep they touch me. Then he will always remind

me about what we did at training when it happens in the game so that is why we celebrate together.

“He knows what I am capable of, so we work on what I know. He gives me advice heading into that space along with where I am lacking. He is an approachable coach and in the team we all have this ‘wow’ relationship.

“There is no disrespect in this team. If you need anything you go to him and he will show you the way in whatever situation. Even when you are not playing you always know what you must be working on because it will have been made clear to you based on what happened last time, so that you improve.

“He is the coach, so he is the one who can see how each player is. For me, I must listen to the coach and the senior players who are always welcome for us to talk to them. That is why I say we have a ‘wow’ team because we have that understanding from players to the technical team.

“Coach Pitso obviously knows what is needed of someone coming from development for him to eventually get into the team and then how to behave when you start playing. That is where he comes in and reminds us about the need to remain grounded, be humble and keep working hard.

“He loves people who listen so that you learn. It is not only at school where you learn, even in football it is like that. If you want to become like Messi or Ronaldo, you must be open to learning,” he details.

Makgalwa is also quick to stress that he continually be viewed as youngster when he is due to turn 24 on his next birthday.

“I am 23 now and there are a lot of players like [Marcus] Rashford (22), {Erling] Haarland (19), [Kylian] Mbappe (21), [ Trent] Alexander Arnold (21), Ansu Fati (17) and others. Look at the ages of all those and tell me if I should still regard myself as a youngster?

“So that is why I am making sure that I must work hard to be in a team like Sundowns. I can’t be satisfied with just being there, but I must fight to play. For me, a youngster is an Under-20 who is still playing in the MDC and looking to break into the first team. The moment you are in the senior team you are a first team player,” he says.

The mention of the conclusion of the season is a matter that he holds close to his heart as well, considering that Sundowns remain in contention to win both the league and Nedbank Cup.

Another league title will mean three in a row for the second time, and a historic tenth through the PSL years.

“I know anything is possible after the league starts but for us, we have to play to win it. I really want to win it this year because this will be a league that I will have won having played more games than before.

“In previous seasons I played less games so this time I have played 13 so far and can still add more. I really want this league title. It is always the right thing to celebrate because the team won, but if you played and the team won it is a bonus.

“When you have played you can even brag about your achievements when you retire because you contributed,” he concludes.

“AS SOON AS THE SEASON STARTS, I AM ALREADY WORKING TOWARDS TRYING TO MAKE SURE THAT I HAVE 10 GOALS AND 10 ASSISTS.”