Manyama the man to beat

City skipper has had an exceptional season, earning a Bafana recall

ANEW Footballer of the Season will be crowned tonight at the Premier Soccer League awards ceremony, and the general feeling is that the accolade is not a closely contested as this time last season when Khama Billiat was pronounced the best player.

Then, the public, media and pundits felt any of Billiat, his Mamelodi Sundowns teammates Hlompho Kekana or Keagan Dolly would have been a worthy winner.

Tonight, striker and Cape Town City captain Lebogang Manyama is the hot favourite to win the coveted award.

It is not that Thulani Hlatshwayo and Kekana, a nominee for the second consecutive season, also captains at their clubs – league champions Bidvest Wits and Sundowns respectively, have not been outstanding during the 2016/17 campaign, but rather that Manyama was perhaps a different class, helping City emerge as surprise title contenders and eventually finish third behind Wits and Sundowns.

Manyama, 26, incredibly featured in all but one league match for the Mother City outfit and scored 13 goals, which automatically guarantees him an award tonight for beating other strikers to the Golden Boot.

His performance also helped him return to the national team and he featured as a second half substitute Bafana Bafana’s historic 2-0 win over Nigeria last month when South Africa, for the first time in a qualifying match, beat the Super Eagles.

But this is not to say Hlatshwayo would not have earned the Footballer of the Year tag should he win.

‘Tyson’, a defender and recently appointed Bafana skipper, was arguably the best player in a team that hardly relies on individuals to get the job done, staying injury-free throughout most of the season and managing to play in 24 of the 30 league games and scoring three very important goals.

The same goes for Kekana, whose schedule at Sundowns with their continental commitment means he’s played more football than his fellow nominees over the last year, but still featured in over 80 percent of his club’s league matches, scoring five goals – often stunners.

The release of the nominees for the PSL awards has not been without some controversy though, especially the Young Player of the Season category. Motjeka Madisha (Sundowns), Phakamani Mahlambi (Wits) and Nduduzo Sibiya (Golden Arrows) are the three who got the nod for the nomination, but it appears the criteria was a bit lax for this category, with the PSL deciding the young players have to have only played in 40 percent of their teams’ league matches.

How rising star and Under-20 World Cup participant Grant Margeman missed out is still a bit of a mystery given he more than met the conditions to earn a nomination. Aubrey Modiba, the winner of this award last year, has also been ignored, suggesting that if you have previously been a recipient you simply can’t go back for a second helping.

Modiba played in 24 of SuperSport United’s 30 league games, netting one goal as he helped them to fifth place finish.