What the Siya crew has been told…

When he was promoted to the Mamelodi Sundowns first team, Keletso Makgalwa was under the tutelage of Pitso Mosimane, who rated him highly and gave him opportunities to play in a starstudded side. His career has not made much progress over the last few seasons, however, and Soccer Laduma understands that the former national U23 international is currently playing for M-Tigers, the Brazilians’ feeder team, in the ABC Motsepe League. Some of the other players who are believed to be at the same outfit at the moment are Pule Maraisane and Malebogo Modise. Lyle Lakay is understood to have trained with them before making a move to SuperSport United a few weeks ago.

The departure of Mosimane to Al Ahly, back in September 2020, saw Makgalwa struggle to break into the team at Chloorkop and, as a result, he has since been loaned out on four different occasions. According to a couple of sources who have worked with the player while he was out on loan, the Mokopane-born star is understood to have relied on the fact that he is still a Sundowns player, which is why they believe he didn’t give his all during those spells out on loan.

Makgalwa was first loaned out to Maritzburg United in 2018, but he was there for less than six months before parting ways with the Midlands outfit, having to return to the Brazilians.

The 26-year-old was loaned out to Swallows FC for the 2021/22 season. He made 27 appearances in all competitions, contributing with one goal and an assist, before leaving the Dube Birds.

At the time he was at Swallows, it was revealed to the Siya crew that the club was paying him in the region of R100 000.

“When Keletso was at Swallows, he was on loan, so for him it felt like it didn’t matter what would happen. He didn’t put in the work. He was kind of a lazy player, but he was expecting to play. He had that entitlement of saying, ‘I am a Sundowns player’”, an informant said.

“The only way Keletso will play is if Sundowns releases him and he finds a team somewhere and he plays. He needs to start from scratch. For him to come back to reality, he needs to join an NFD (National First Division, officially known as Motsepe Foundation Championship) club and start from scratch. He had that ‘don’t care’ attitude and it was not good for him. He needed to understand that when Sundowns sent him out on loan, they sent him out so that he could improve,” added the source.

The stint at the Dobsonvillebased side was followed by a loan spell with TS Galaxy during the first half of last season, but as with his time at the Team of Choice, he was there for less than six months.

A source who spent some time at the Rockets gave insight into how the player’s mentality let him down, which is believed to have led to his sudden exit.

“I think it’s the mentality. He needed to accept that he was no longer at Sundowns. He did not quite focus on resurrecting his career. He was not working hard. It was as if he knew that he would go back to Sundowns. At the time he was at Galaxy, the deal was 60/40 percent. Sundowns were paying 60 percent (of his salary) and Galaxy were paying 40 percent,” the source told the Siya crew.

“But the biggest thing was the mentality. The coaches were impressed by his pace and other things, but he could not live up to that. He needs to change his mentality because he is a good player. I think the fact that he is a Sundowns player tends to get over his head. He has sponsorship from Puma and he is driving this luxury car, so for him it’s all good. So, I feel that he needs to change his mentality and I think that will help him.”

For the second half of last season, Makgalwa was at All Stars in the Motsepe Foundation Championship. He returned to Chloorkop, but it appears the technical team has no plans to have him form part of the first team and the only option for him is to find a club elsewhere. But the Siya crew understands that there has not been too much interest coming his way, especially from clubs in the topflight.