‘Kante’ itches to impress his KZN fans, including gogo
Cape Town City midfielder Thabo Nodada has every reason to be excited about the MTN8 decider against SuperSport United tomorrow.
Not only has “Kante” – as his peers call him after the combative Chelsea midfielder N’Golo Kante – been in top form this season, but this will be his first final in his home province of KwaZulu-Natal.
Nodada, 22, is likely to start having been a regular in coach Benni McCarthy’s midfield this season.
Tomorrow will technically be the first time Nodada features in a top-flight final. He was part of City’s Telkom Knockout-winning
team that beat SuperSport 2-1 in Polokwane in December, but he didn’t play on the day.
He will have his family from Ixopo, a village in KwaZuluNatal midlands, cheering him from the stands of the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Even his 74-year-old grandmother Nobantu Nodada is coming along, and the midfielder has an interesting story to tell about the last time magogo watched him in action.
“I was still at Mpumalanga Black Aces. We played Maritzburg United at Harry Gwala Stadium [last year] and I was Man of the Match that day. Maybe there’s something again for me,” said Nodada, who has won the Best Player of the Match accolades two times this season.
“The fact that the final is in KZN, where I was born and grew up, is big for me. I can’t wait to get into the field.”
He said the new additions have improved the team. “Dona [Teko Modise], Ayanda Patosi, Lyle Lakay [and] Victor Obinna have come with something fresh. We have a lot of ball players and we are always in possession.”
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