W hat I said to Tebza… Stuart Baxter – Former SuperSport United head coach

“Well, when I first saw Tebza, the question you had before you see him play is: how will his physique develop and how much of an issue will his physique be? Because he was wiry, not very technical and you think of players like (Lionel) Messi, who is smaller, but has developed his strength. So, my first thoughts were: will he develop physically enough to match up with the undoubted technical ability that he has? Because you saw immediately that he could see a pass, you could see directly that he had good vision, good range of passing both short and long. So, you saw that immediately, but the question I had was: will his physique help him or hinder him? I think what Tebza has always had is a good attitude to learning and whether that has been about tactical stuff or improving his technique or improving his physique, he’s done everything he can and that’s been a part of his make-up. The problem is (that) most of the people don’t look at that straight away – they see his technique, but he’s got a very strong attitude and he is very purposeful and once he decides he wants something, he goes for it and I would say that the Olympics, if he applies himself in that way, will be a great showcase for him. What I did with him at SuperSport is that he had “Yeye” (Reneilwe Letsholonyane) and Dean (Furman) and I said to Tebza, ‘First of all, train and learn from them, then come on as substitute and play as a substitute for short periods instead of them, and then make sure that you, in the end, take over from them.”