JELE – LAST MAN STANDING

Just how time flies in football is proven by the fact that only Happy Jele remains at the club from the Orlando Pirates squad which last won the league in the 2011/12 season.

A year shy of capping a decade since that title win under Augusto Palacios, it is only Jele that has remained at the club with the lanky defender now a veteran in this league and still standing as a one-club man since making his PSL debut in 2006. Jele now wears the armband and still gets the job done playing at either centre-back or right-back. From the 35 players that earned minutes in that championship winning season, there are only four still playing in the PSL, namely Andile Jali (Mamelodi Sundowns), Robyn Johannes (Stellenbosch FC), Ndumiso Mabena (Bloemfontein Celtic) and Thabo Matlaba (Swallows FC).

The duo of Brighton Mhlongo and Siphelele Mthembu are still contracted to PSL clubs and though they were part of the squad that season, did not make an appearance. Half of that squad has long called it quits, amongst them Benni McCarthy, Siyabonga Sangweni, Thulasizwe Mbuyane and Lucky Lekgwathi.

Others are still scraping the barrel in the hope of landing whatever contract comes their way, amongst them Rooi Mahamutsa and Bongani Ndulula, while a few are attached to clubs in the GladAfrica Championship like Clifford Ngobeni and Mark Mayambela.

Even the two South Americans that took charge of Pirates, Julio Leal and Augusto Palacios, are now pensioners with both turning 70 during 2021.