Mamelodi Sundowns

Rivaldo Coetzee reveals all about his move to midfield and the target for The Brazilians this season.

After starting his career as a central defender, Rivaldo Coetzee has established himself as a potentially world-class holding midfielder and believes his career will now continue in that position. In this interview with KICK OFF’s Lovemore Moyo, he talks about how he has grown at Mamelodi Sundowns and the ambitions he still holds.

KICK OFF: How has it been playing football in empty stadiums for the past year?

Rivaldo Coetzee: It has been a new experience, but it has meant we hear instructions clearer and communication is clearer. It took a bit of adjusting but we are now able to motivate ourselves without supporters. But fans remain important, especially to us who are role models, so we have to take the lead in wearing masks and sanitising.

How have you grown in your career to this point as you head into your fifth season at Sundowns?

I have matured a lot by being here, considering that I have been away from home since I was 14, which prepared me for the bigger stages. Off the field I have a baby now, along with two properties in my name, which are things that I couldn’t do while I was at Ajax Cape Town. In as much as this is my fifth season, I feel like I haven’t contributed as much as I would have liked, but I’m hoping to continue from where we left off last season and look to improve. The biggest reason for my growth has been the change of position, which taught me new things because when I came here, I played with so many quality players that I must compete with every day. This has also helped me raise my level because if someone is playing ahead of you and consistent, then you just must wait for your opportunity. It is always about improving and making use of the opportunity for me.

Having left home as a young boy, what is the response now when you go back?

It is still a bit strange for me that people I went to school with now treat me like a celebrity, someone who is not the same Rivaldo that I was before. As footballers we don’t want to be treated like that because we are human beings with friends and family. The response is not what you would like because you want people to treat you normally and not as a footballer. At times people don’t even want to greet you because they think you might not greet back. A lot of people say I don’t look approachable just because of what they see of me on television or when I walk in the mall.

A lot of these people only see you on television when you are at work with so much at stake through those 90 minutes. You can’t be smiling the whole game for people to see that they can approach you and talk anytime.

You have been a league winner for all four seasons that you have spent at Sundowns. How are you digesting all of that?

Before I came here, I spoke to coach Pitso [Mosimane] and he already set the tone in our phonecall by stating that at Sundowns the mission is to win trophies and that’s it. He told me that we play to win every single game, and I think that is what has helped us for

“I MUST HAVE DONE SOMETHING RIGHT FOR THEM TO KEEP ME THERE.”

the past four years. The consistency as well. Even guys that didn’t play that much become important during the season because anyone can play at any time. If you take anyone from our squad right now, they can easily go and be a first-choice player at any other team. Going into my fifth year with the team, the goal is obviously to win the league again along with the cups, but the biggest target is the Champions League.

When you have been winning the league so much, how do you keep yourself motivated to win it again?

When you get the feeling of winning a trophy you want to win it again. At Sundowns we are a bunch of winners and we want to win everything as much as we can. The goals we set for ourselves for the season is motivation enough for every individual.

Your coach Manqoba Mngqithi has been talking about how effective you are as a central midfielder. How was that process of changing position from central defender to midfielder?

Please, I am not a central defender anymore but a midfielder, OK? [Laughing]. Funnily enough, coach Manqoba is the one that was pushing for me to play in midfield since the first year I arrived. So, from the second year when I started training [after a long injury break], coach Manqoba said I should play in midfield even though at the time it was for training purposes. I must have done something right for them to keep me there. Training there every day helped because it meant I knew what to do when it comes to games, knowing how to position myself and play one-touch, so the belief he has shown in me has been immense. I am just happy that I could repay him, especially last season which was my best since I joined the club. So, credit must go to him in the same way it goes to coach Rhulani [Mokwena] and Steve [Komphela]. Rhulani works a lot with tactics and is on our case with body positioning and how you receive the ball, and I think that helps and makes things easier for us, especially in the way we want to play since we always want to have the ball and when we lose it, we want to press immediately to get it back.

Some players have issues with being changed positions but you have shown just how comfortable you are in midfield …

What helped me is that I didn’t get thrown into the deep end from the word go. I trained in that position for a while before I got a chance to make my debut in midfield against Black Leopards. For me it was just a mindset thing in that maybe I will have a better chance if I play in midfielder because then you are versatile. If you are not in the starting XI, you have a better chance of being in the squad because you can play different positions. It has helped me grow and what makes is easier for me is that I know how to cover the defenders behind me considering that I was a defender before. I know how to make it easier for the defenders. I watch defensive midfielders with more interest now.

You always appear to play football at such a leisurely pace without doing a lot of sprinting …

[Laughing] Now you are sounding like my teammates. Everyone is complaining that I never sprint and all of that. I have had to sprint a couple of times because there are so many quick players, but people don’t notice because maybe the camera wasn’t on me. At some stage in the game, you are forced into sprints, but it also depends on the position you play and your positioning when we have the ball. We always emphasise that even when we have the ball, we must still be ready to react when we lose the ball.

Is the way you play football with so much awareness and positional sense part of the benefits of the kind of development that you went through?

At Ajax [Cape Town] the way they wanted to play was the same as Ajax Amsterdam. The philosophy was to keep the ball on the ground and obviously if you are in an academy like Ajax you have to be comfortable on the ball and your positioning has to be good. Your awareness and technique should also be on point in the sense that you should know when to play one or two touches. Scanning becomes important because you can’t just receive the ball without looking at what is happening behind you because that is when people can steal the ball from you. As a number six you become so important

“I WATCH DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDERS WITH MORE INTEREST NOW.”

because a lot of build-ups can go through you depending on how well you position yourself. Being in the academy at Ajax helped with being comfortable with both feet because I can go either way and not panic.

“THERE IS NO WAY THAT YOU CAN SAY I DON’T HAVE AMBITIONS OF GOING TO EUROPE.”

When you are winning trophies and earning good money at Sundowns, does this lessen the desire to play overseas? You previously had trials at Glasgow Celtic and Ajax Amsterdam …

Not at all. This is making me hungrier to go to Europe because I still have that ambition to go there. Being here at Sundowns you get so much more exposure because we play in the CAF Champions League, which can make things a lot easier for you to go Europe.

It is so much more difficult for us from South Africa to get into Europe compared to the guys in the west and north [of the continent]. To get into the biggest leagues they need your country to be up there and to have played most of the games. Our national team rankings don’t help us as players in wanting to go abroad. You need so much more, and you saw how long it took Percy Tau to get into the Premier League. West Africans don’t get sent on loan over work permit issues because their country rankings are higher. Everyone wants to play on the biggest stages, but it doesn’t always happen that way because opportunities don’t come as often as we would like. There is no way that you can say I don’t have ambitions of going to Europe when you have never spoken to me, but none the less people will always have an opinion. But don’t judge someone that you don’t know.

How has playing Champions League football every year influenced your game?

In some Champions League games, you will have more space than in our league and in some games the tempo will be slower than in our league games. The Champions League is physical and there is more aggression, while locally a lot of teams try to play football without being physical. The atmosphere in a Champions League game is different and these are all things that prepare you better mentally. In our league the conditions are better than in most countries where we play in the Champions League. Once you have played Champions League football it becomes easier to compete locally.

Despite making your national team debut as a teenager you have now only played once for Bafana Bafana through the last 27 games…

It happens in football when a new coach comes and he has different plans, wanting different players in different positions, and I respect that. I won’t be everyone’s cup of tea. Not everyone will like me as a player, and I respect that. No problem. So, for me I am obviously disappointed about not being in the national team for so many games but also it is a sign that I should continue working hard and hope for a call-up in the next camp. If I can perform well and be consistent, hopefully I will get a chance to get back into the set-up.