Lebusa’s rags-to-riches story
About six months ago, Mosa Lebusa played his last game for Ajax Cape Town against Kaizer Chiefs in a game that brought down the curtain for the Mother City side’s Absa Premiership status.
There was plenty of speculation surrounding his future and he was heavily linked to Kaizer Chiefs but ended up joining Mamelodi Sundowns, a team which he believes has a healthy one-track mind.
“Here at Sundowns winning is the only language they speak. When you are there you need to give 100% and that puts pressure on you. I also put pressure on myself because I want to do well,” he told Phakaaathi.
Usually when a player joins Sundowns, he faces many questions, such as “why go to a team with so many good players in your position”? Take Reyaad Pieterse for example – in order for him to be a regular he needs to dethrone Denis Onyango, who has over the years become one of the first names on Pitso Mosimane’s team sheet.
“It is a different set-up because when you are at the bottom fighting relegation, it is a different ball-game, you are playing to survive. Over here everyone wants to beat Sundowns and teams come at us, so we just have to absorb the pressure.
“Playing with the best players gives me motivation because they are good and some have been playing at the highest level in the Champions League. If I look at it, this makes me raise the bar and makes me want to play better,” said Lebusa, who explained that he did not hesitate to join Sundowns.
“It wasn’t a hard decision because everyone is well aware that Sundowns are winners, they want to win something every season. I wanted to associate myself with winners. It has always been my dream to win the league and win trophies. Unfortunately we are out of two competitions now but we still have the league to play for.”
Before Mosimane recruited Lebusa, he was vocal about his desire to have a left-footed centreback, although he already had one in Ricardo Nascimento. Mosimane has a habit of fielding players out of position or changing their position altogether. Lebusa said everything was ironed out with him before he left Cape Town.
“Before I came here I had a brief chat with him and he knew I was a centreback or a leftback. We spoke about that and I was pretty much happy with him retaining me in my original position.
“When I was promoted to the senior team at Ajax it was on the left-hand side so I have played there before, it was just on a different level. If I am given an opportunity to play, I will play down the left just as long as I am on the pitch and contributing to the team,” he said.
Lebusa has so far played seven matches for Downs in all competitions and he is not happy with only three clean sheets he has kept so far, but is confident that playing in front of Onyango can only improve his game.
“It has been disappointing, especially against Baroka (in the TKO last eight defeat), there are a couple of things we need to deal with, like the lack of communication. We’ve worked hard on that.
“Denis is very commanding and it makes your job very easy. You hardly ever a put a foot wrong because you get the command from him. I think we just have different personalities in terms of goalkeepers, we need to understand them.”
While playing in the Champions League will be a dream come true by his own admission, equally so would be being part of Stuart Baxter’s Bafana Bafana set-up. However, he is not directing his focus on Bafana, at least for now.
“I think playing in the Champions League is every South African player’s dream,” he said.
“If I keep on working hard and getting game time I think I will reach greater heights. It is everyone’s dream to represent the country.”