I felt like quitting
Delmain Faver: It is your first season in the elite division despite being in the football circles for a very long time. You must be relieved that your chance has finally come.
Tlotlo Leepile:
Ja, it was a really good feeling, my brother, because you know I waited a long time to get my breakthrough. When I played my first
game against Chippa (United), it was a dream come true. I felt a feeling of excitement and was overwhelmed, but
I felt really good.
DF: Did you, at any point, feel like giving up when you were moving around in the lower tiers?
TL:
There was a time when I felt like I would go back to school because it
was taking so long and I wasn’t sure what was happening because I could see that I could play in the PSL, but the chance just wasn’t coming. Even when I was at (Mamelodi) Sundowns, I always went for pre-season with the
first team and that’s when I thought my chance was coming, only to find that it wasn’t my chance yet. So, that time, I felt like quitting, but my family was there to encourage me not to give up and that I would get my chance. But there was a time where I felt like leaving it all behind and going back to school or start looking for a job, but I had patience and my chance finally came.
DF: Why did it take you so long though?
TL: Eish, I can’t say. Honestly, I don’t know why it took so long, but I can also say that maybe there were things I wasn’t doing right that the coaches didn’t like, but sometimes they don’t tell you that. Maybe I should have put in more effort because you know that you cannot depend on talent alone. So, I think I should have just worked harder on my game like I am doing now and maybe if I did it back then already, my chance would have come at that time because in the national teams, there was hardly a game that I didn’t play from U17 to U20.
DF: You hail from the Stars of Africa Academy, where a number of your generation of players have since broken into the topflight and even gone abroad. What is that the academy is doing differently to get it right?
TL:
Well, I can’t say what we were doing differently from other academies because I have only been in one academy, but what I can say is that coach Farouk (Khan) and Rafiq (Khan) always told us that there was a culture that we needed to follow. Obviously when you get there, you find players have already gone overseas, because when I got there in 2009, players like May Mahlangu were already abroad, and it gives you momentum to push as you see that following in their footsteps is possible. The other thing is that the training was top-quality, I won’t lie. We trained twice a day, at 05h00 before we went to school, and in the afternoon, it was training again and thereafter homework. So, we did things very differently. There was a Brazilian culture in the academy because coach Farouk always told us about Brazilian players, how they eat and how they live, so we
followed that.
After a bright start to his career where he was a regular fixture for the junior national teams, Tlotlo Leepile has had to bide his time. He never really got the breakthrough he so desired at Mamelodi Sundowns and, as if to add insult to injury, had a move to Europe mysteriously fall through at literally the last minute. However, it’s not been all doom and gloom for the Kimberley-born lad, as he’s previously had a stint in Portugal. Now at Sekhukhune United, he has put all of his unpleasant experiences behind him, including the thought of retiring when the frustrations of football wreaked havoc with his psyche. And 12 starts so far isn’t a bad return. In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Delmain Faver, the 25-year-old talks about finally making it to the topflight, the difficulties of playing overseas, and the spirit of brotherhood that prevails at Babina Noko. a new language and a new culture, so we had to adapt to everything. You are far from home and there was nobody that you could call unless you had Skype. But it was a good experience all in all. I learnt a lot that side and it’s helping me now. I played a lot… I played 30 games and scored two goals from what I can remember. But everything was a good experience because you learn from players from different countries. Even though we are no longer in Portugal, we still keep in touch via Facebook and Instagram. The football was top. There, they deal with things like technique a lot.
DF: Was there a possibility that you could stay on in Europe?
TL:
Yes, there was. I was supposed to go to Sweden with Luther (Singh) and Pule (Maraisane), but I don’t know what happened because I had to turn around at the airport due to visa problems and that was something I couldn’t control. I had to go to GAIS, so I can’t say what happened and what didn’t happen. All I know is that I was supposed to go back to Europe and I think I would have still been there. I had all my bags, my plane
ticket was booked, but I couldn’t go.
DF: Wow, what a huge disappointment that must have been!
TL:
It was a disappointment. It was heartbreaking because after that, I had to come back and play here. It broke me! But it also made me stronger because when I sit and think, (I tell myself) I should have been somewhere else,
but it’s life and such things happen. You just have to be strong and move on. But it really broke me because the team was
waiting on me. I don’t know what happened, it is just the academy that can tell me what happened. But I’m glad that I’m finally where I want to be, but I wanna push again because my dream is to go back to Europe, whether it is this season or next season. If the opportunity avails itself, I will definitely go.
DF: During your time at Sundowns, you featured regularly for the club’s reserve side, M Tigers, in the ABC Motsepe League.
TL: We started out in the Diski Challenge when I first got to Sundowns and we won the league with the late (Motjeka) Madisha and we also won the tournament in Netherlands. That’s when I thought things would happen for us, but that’s when Sundowns loaned me to Tshakhuma (Tsha Madzivhandila). Most of us were loaned out, others were promoted. At the time, I thought a loan was fine because I would be playing and if I came back, I would get an opportunity to train with the first team. But sometimes it felt (like) things were going slowly and I often spoke to coach Godfrey Sapula. I asked him, “Coach, what is going on?” and he told me to keep going, I would get my chance.
DF: Did you? TL:
I was playing (at M Tigers) and the guys also believed that I deserved the chance (in the first team), but that was out of my control. But there was a possibility to get a chance to showcase my talent. Coach Manqoba (Mngqithi) always told me to keep on working hard and that I would get my chance, and at least those words of encouragement showed me that there was something inside of me, so it made me push even more. Even now, he tells me that he is happy for me.
DF: Of course you’re currently with Sekhukhune United. TL:
It’s been good. As a team, we didn’t have a good pre-season, but we’ve formed a brotherhood, where we can help each other and seek ways to improve as a team. Off the field, the guys have that relationship where we phone each other to check up on one another. Even at training, we are always talking (about) things outside of football. So, I think that brotherhood that we’ve formed has helped and we all have been in this game. Even though
some of us hadn’t played in the PSL before, but the experience that you have counts at the end of the day. It helps the team and the coaches too. The support from management has also helped. That is the one thing that pushes the team because we see that we have their support, so we know that we have to push to show them what we can do. We have quality players and a lot of experienced
guys who help the youngsters in terms of what we must do to work as a team. There’s no jealousy here where if someone is playing, the other is angry – no. If someone plays ahead of you, you are
happy for them and that helps us a lot.
DF: On a personal note, you’ve made 12 starts so far this season.
TL:
It’s a good start for me because my goal was to get at least 15 starts in the first round, although it didn’t quite go that way, but when I got my chance to play, I grabbed it with both hands because the competition in the team is healthy and you cannot relax, especially in our midfield. So, in every training session and every game, you always have to give 100% because if you make one mistake, it will take you a long time to get back into the team, as you see the team is playing well, we are winning games and getting points. If you start relaxing and thinking that you are guaranteed to play, someone might take your position and it will take long
for you to get back into the team and that will leave you frustrated. That is why I give my all at training and I ask the coaches where I can improve. I think that is something that is also helping me because I’ve been wanting to play in the PSL for a long time, so I want to show people that I deserve to be here, it’s just that things didn’t happen at the right time.
“I think I should have just worked harder on my game.”
DF: Coach Macdonald Makhubedu has shown tremendous faith in your ability despite you being a relative novice…
TL: I think it helps when the coaches believe in you and they know what you
are capable of and what you can do to help the team win. It also helps that I’ve previously worked with the coaches. Coach Thabo (Senong) and I worked together in the U20s and coach Macdonald knows me from last season, so he knows exactly what I can and can’t do, you see? So, I am always asking them questions on what we should be doing and they always give us advice. The video analysis also helps because they give us our videos and show us what we
can improve on.
DF: Between yourself, Yusuf Maart and Willard Katsande, you’ve formed quite a formidable partnership. What’s the secret behind your success?
TL:
It helps me because I’m also learning from them. We are different types of players, but we each have our qualities. With Katsande, his experience
helps us a lot because you can see his is more vocal. He tells us what to do on the field. Maart and I have been playing together from last season, so we have that understanding where I already know what he’s going to do when he receives the ball and I already know when to move for him, and the same with him. Sometimes he plays as a six and me as an eight, or vice versa. But when it’s the three of us, we tell Katsande to stay and we push forward. We do the work for him and he just has to guide us and break down the opposition counter-attacks, then we can push forward and get the team to play again.