Secrets of the Stars
With Ryan Moon (Kaizer Chiefs)
Ten things you may not know about Kaizer Chiefs striker Ryan Moon.
1 Kaizer Chiefs striker Ryan Moon was born on Sunday, 15 September 1996, just a month into the inaugural PSL season.
2 Ryan’s father, Patrick Moon, played as a winger for Maritzburg United in the now-defunct Federation League and was coached by Farook Abrahams. “Patrick was a very good winger, and he was also my striker. He was better than his two sons, far better,” Abrahams says.
3 Ryan’s older brother, Bryce Moon, earned 17 Bafana Bafana caps during a career which started in 2004 at Coleraine FC in Northern Ireland.
4 The Amakhosi forward started playing football at a very young age, but also excelled in cricket while at school.
5 Like his brother Bryce, Ryan started playing football for an amateur team in Maritzburg called Pirates. It was there where his goal-scoring prowess attracted the attention of Maritzburg United, the very same team his father and brother played for.
6 Moon was recruited by Maritzburg United coaches Steve Komphela and John Paintsil, where he played for the MultiChoice Diski Challenge team before being promoted to the senior team.
7 The now 22-year-old was always a striker and has always had a keen eye for goal. “When I saw him at Maritzburg, he used to play against big players and he would score six goals in one game. I used to ask him, “Were you playing against blind people? That is just how good he was,” brother Bryce says.
8 In a move organised by Painstil, Moon, alongside current Kaizer Chiefs teammates Siyabonga Ngezana, Lorenzo Gordinho and William Letlotlo, spent January 2017 on trial with English side Fulham who were then playing in the English Championship.
9 Ryan and his older brother Bryce have a property business together in KwaZulu-Natal. The duo buy properties before renovating them and renting them out to tenants.
10 In July 2017, Moon joined the likes of Dumisa Ngobe on the list of players who scored on debut for Bafana Bafana, netting the opener in a 2-0 win over Botswana during the Chan qualifiers.
From a gifted football family, with a keen eye for goal and a finger in the property market, here’s ten things you may not know about Kaizer Chiefs striker Ryan Moon.