Secret Footballer

This month’s Secret Footballer talks about Tokelo Rantie’s return to football after over three years in the wilderness.

“THE CURRENT PIRATES PLAYERS, WHETHER THEY WIN OR LOSE, THEY ARE ON INSTAGRAM.”

Tokelo Rantie was a highly-rated player when he made his mark at Orlando Pirates earlier in his career. But moves to Malmo in Sweden, Bournemouth in the English Premier League and Genclerbiligi in Turkey were followed by a downward spiral. Rantie joined Mamelodi Sundowns and Cape Town City but left without kicking a ball in competitive action. After more than three years without playing, he finally made his comeback when he came on as a substitute for Tshakuma Tsha Madzivhandila against SuperSport United in the Nedbank Cup. Our Secret Footballer – Rantie’s former teammate – believes that it’s not too late for the striker to get his career back on track.

Iam happy that Tokelo Rantie has finally made his return to professional football when he joined TTM, this is really good news. I hope he can go out there and enjoy himself because football is a short career.

He is a gifted and talented player; it was really disappointing to see someone as talented as him go through the difficulties he went through. I hope he can use this opportunity at TTM to prove himself because I know him very well.

It was a learning curve for him to go through a divorce, it’s always something that you don’t foresee happening. In life you do things to make your life better but through circumstances things change and people’s expectations of you also change. So, you can’t predict the future.

I wish he can go out there and play his football to the best of his ability now that he has been given fair opportunity to do so.

I know it’s normal to think about, ‘what if I had done this, what if I did that, what if …’, but eventually your performance can go up and down because of off the field problems.

But trust me, if he can get a fair chance, I know for a fact he will do well because he is a great player.

I’m backing him because I have worked with him and I know what he is capable of. At a very young age he got a chance to go and play for Malmo in Sweden.

After returning from overseas he came to Mamelodi Sundowns. When I was his teammate at Orlando Pirates I saw someone who understood the importance of fighting for the club’s badge – he wanted to play for the badge and do well every time he had an opportunity to play.

I will be failing him if I say that he was an ordinary player, he wasn’t. He was great and he always wanted to play well. We had great guys like Benni McCarthy, who would always give advice and that is where Rantie learned from.

The current crop of players at Orlando Pirates value themselves more than the club badge. If they wanted to win everything, they could easily win everything. But they do well today, and you will be happy, but the next match they will break your heart.

These days it’s difficult to put your money on Pirates and say that they will win. Matches that they are supposed to win easily, they make it hard for themselves. When you play for the badge and work hard for the team, your name will always be remembered.

Today people talk about the late Senzo Meyiwa and Lucky Lekgwathi because those guys worked hard for the badge.

The current Pirates players, whether they win or lose, they are on Instagram. Whether they won or lost it doesn’t matter to them. It doesn’t pain them that there are people who are paying money to watch the team.

The brand is too big, when you lose you must be scared of going out because you have failed people. It was hard for us and guys like Rantie to go out after we lost – I know that.

Tokelo fought hard. When we were teammates at Orlando Prates, I knew that he was destined to move to Europe. He also played in Turkey and England, and he will bring that experience to Tshakuma.

But to be honest with you, it will be difficult for him to adjust to the new reality because when you do well you have many friends, you become friends with everyone. Everyone wants to be associated with you and now things have changed.

He must just focus on his game and forget about other things because if he does well again, supporters will appreciate him again. And I also hope the club can be patient with him, let him get back his match fitness and he will rise to the occasion.

He hasn’t played competitive football in a very long time and this is an opportunity for him to prove his worth and the trust Tshakuma is giving him. Obviously there will be pressure to get results because the club doesn’t want to go down.

I know he is working very hard and the honest truth is everyone expects him to fail. There are very few that want him to succeed and I’m one of them. I would love to see him back in the national team and playing his best football that took him overseas.