‘Iam more mature’
Victor Letsoalo appears to have burst onto the scene with Royal AM this season, but the Bafana Bafana striker has in fact been building his impressive goal-scoring numbers for some time now. At the age of 28 he is no youngster, but a player who has made great strides in his own game and kicked off his international career with a bang by netting a hat-trick on debut to claim a unique piece of history for the national side. He chatted to KICK OFF’s Nick Said about where the improvement in his game has come from and what it would mean to play at a World Cup.
Victor Letsoalo’s rise to become a leading striker for club and country this season may have caught many by surprise, but the numbers behind the Royal AM forward show a different story.
The last calendar year has seen the 28-year-old score 15 goals in 30 starts for Bloemfontein Celtic and now Royal AM, which is as good a ratio as just about any forward over the same period up to FIFA’s October international break.
He was joint leading scorer in the league with five goals from as many games for Royal AM, a number only matches by the prolific Peter Shalulile of Mamelodi Sundowns, who continues to set the standard for goal-scoring in South Africa’s elite league.
His form over the last year was recognized by the national team and his call-up for the 2021 COSAFA Cup, albeit following some COVID-19 withdrawals, was just reward for a striker who has worked hard to improve his game over the last few seasons. And boy did he take his chance.
Letsoalo became the only player to net a hat-trick on debut for Bafana Bafana when he scored three against Lesotho at the COSAFA Cup, and just the second player ever to com-plete the feat following Benni McCarthy’s four goals against Namibia at the 1998 Africa Cup of Nations.
He went on to help the side lift the regional trophy, netting again in the semifinal win over Mozambique, and was retained for the first four of Bafana’s 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifi-ers.
While he may not yet have reached his peak as a player, he is now one of the older states-men in the new, young national team. Only Sifiso Hlanti (31), Siyanda Xulu and Vincent Pule (both 29) were older than him among the outfield players that were selected for October’s back-to-back matches against Ethiopia.
While his rise has been seemingly swift and rapid, he has been building his capacity and feels sweat he has put into his game in the last few years is beginning to pay off.
“I was very excited and proud to have achieved that. I don’t look back to the past too much, to be in the history books for having achieved the hat-trick on debut is great for me,” Letsoalo says.
“I was pushing well, even now I am doing what I know how to do, which is to score goals. That is the only thing that counts for a striker.”
Calm and composed
Letsoalo looks to be one of the more accomplished forwards in the DStv Premiership, and a calm and composed finisher. It is unusual to see him hurrying his shot or panicking in the box and that, he says, is the result of many hours studying his own game.
While he has learnt a lot from coaches down the years, he has also taken it upon himself to learn more about his role on the pitch, what he does well and not so well, which he says always gives him the opportunity to develop.
This is what he credits with his improved goals ratio over the last 12 months that put him into the national frame.
“I think it is experience, I am a more mature player now,” he says. “That has helped me a lot because I understand a lot better now what to do in the field of play, where to position myself.
“I also do a lot more analysis on myself to try and understand my game better. I have done that a lot recently.
“I AM DOING WHAT I KNOW HOW TO DO, WHICH IS TO SCORE GOALS.”
“The guys there [at Royal AM] have been really helping me, especially someone like goalkeeper Jackson Mabokgwane, who has a lot of experience and can offer advice on my game because he has faced many strikers in his career.
“So if I have to think about what has maybe changed for me, it is the fact that I analyse myself much more and maybe think about my game a lot more. Once you can recongise what to do in certain situations then you put yourself in better positions to score.
“And, of course, working hard! I don’t believe you can succeed if you don’t put in hard work.”
Catching a break
Letsoalo started bis professional career with Baroka FC when the club campaigned in the National First
Division, making his debut in the 2013-14 season.
He was spotted playing at a festive season tournament and was immediately thrown into the fray, making a big impact with six goals in his first nine starts for the club in the second half of that campaign.
He was just 20 at the time and a raw talent, but the ease with which he took to professional football showed a calm nature and a drive to succeed.
He made his debut, in a roundabout way, against the team he currently plays for as Baroka beat Royal Eagles, later to become Royal AM, when he came off the bench in a 3-1 win in January 2014, just weeks after arriving at the club.
There were some good players in that Baroka team up front, not least Thabiso Kutumela and Gift Motupa, while it also featured his current national teammate Veli Mothwa as goalkeeper.
“I am from the rural areas, Ga-Thaba in Limpopo. My father played football in the amateur levels and I used to go watch him a lot,” the quietly-spoken Letsoalo says.
“I really got the platform to showcase myself at Baroka. The chairman [Khurishi Mphahlele] saw me when I was playing in the SAB Regional League for Peace United in Polokwane.
“We were playing in a tournament in Moria in December 2013. He saw me there and I joined the team that was in the NFD [National First Division]. I started well and just tried to learn as much as I could, as quickly as I could. There were times it was tough, but I kept on going.”
Letsoalo played a role in helping Baroka win promotion to the top-flight in the 2015-16 sea-son, but was then barely used, making just eight starts in their maiden Premiership season, though with a healthy return of four goals.
That prompted a move to Bloemfontein Celtic, where he found much more game-time under a succession of coaches and has continued to be a leading man following the club’s relocation to Durban as Royal AM.
Gaining in confidence
He finds it hard to pinpoint one coach who stands out as having helped to develop his game, and says he has taken something from virtually everyone he played under.
“There have coaches who have helped me all through my career. When I got to Baroka, someone like [ Thoka] Matsemela really helped me to settle to the squad and encouraged me a lot,” Letsoalo says.
“But if I think about it, almost every coach has given me something to add to my game and made me a better player.
“When I got to Bloemfontein Celtic it was Veselin Jelusic, [Lehlohonolo] Seema and then Steve Komphela. They all helped me in
“ONCE YOU CAN RECOGNISE WHAT TO DO IN CERTAIN SITUATIONS THEN YOU PUT YOURSELF IN BETTER POSITIONS TO SCORE.”
different ways, and I think improved me as a striker.
“The coach I play under now [John Maduka at Royal AM] is the same, he is helping me a lot to understand my game.”
Injury and perhaps a loss of confidence had hampered his progress to a certain extent, with the lack of consistent gametime meaning he found it difficult to find his rhythm as a striker.
But it is noticeable that as he has been entrusted with more starts, so the goals have begun to flow.
“You need confidence as a striker and there were times in my career that maybe that was lacking. But I feel like I can score goals at this level [the DStv Premiership], I truly believe that.
“It does not happen easily, there is a lot of hard work and obviously you need the right teammates around you who can give you that supply. But if chances are created for me then I am always confident I can score.”
Exciting Bafana future
As for the national team, Letsoalo sees an exciting future for the current group under Broos, even if there may be bumps in the road ahead. He admits to not seeing much of the team while growing up in his sheltered rural childhood.
“I must admit I was never someone who watched Bafana Bafana much growing up,” he says. “But it’s very exciting, these young boys are full of energy. You can see that when we are together.
“Everybody is hungry to show up, they want to succeed. I think the young boys want to show their talent and what they can do, and so everybody is excited for the opportunity, me in-cluded.”
He says the players are responding well to Broos and while it has been a steep learning curve under the Belgian, backs him as the right man to lead the national team to a successful future.
“He is a very understanding coach and he gives his players freedom, I think we are doing really well under him. He understands the players and how they think, and he wants to see them grow. He is a very good coach.”
World Cup qualification for Qatar 2022 remains a long way off, but Letsoalo says they have allowed themselves to dream and to reach that grand global stage would be life-changing for all the players.
“It would mean such a lot to go the World Cup, we just hope for the best and positive re-sults. When I look at the youngsters here, and imagine them at the World Cup, it would mean such a lot.
“We are still all looking to get experience within the group and to push each other, and after that we can only hope for the best.
“Imagine going there and seeing the likes of [Lionel] Messi and [Cristiano] Ronaldo, and all the others. It would mean a lot for us.”
“I MUST ADMIT I WAS NEVER SOMEONE WHO WATCHED BAFANA BAFANA MUCH GROWING UP.”