I put myself under a lot of pressure

“It was a memorable feeling for me that I will cherish.”

“He has a striker’s instinct and he also has a defender’s instinct.”

Often times having a father who played the game at the highest level – especially for one of the biggest teams in the country in Kaizer Chiefs – places a burden on their budding sons, who have to first escape their old man’s shadows and, secondly, prove that their success is not as a result of their dad calling in favours to catapult them past their peers who are not as fortunate. But for Khanyisa Mayo, his father’s success plays no part in his rise as one of the country’s most prominent strikers besides the football genes inherited and the ability to tap into the well of Patrick Mayo’s wisdom and experience. The 23-year-old has come into his own at Cape Town City this season and is giving opposition defenders headaches. He has set himself some lofty ambitions and aims to pave his own way, as he tells Soccer Laduma’s Delmain Faver in this interview.

Delmain Faver: Khanyisa, you had a good start to life under coach Eric Tinkler, but there was a period where you lost your place and didn’t feature for the first six games upon the coach’s arrival. You have gone on to become a regular feature in the Cape Town City line-up...

Khanyisa Mayo: First thing, thanks for coming. On that point, for me, it was trying to gel with the team at first, trying to understand the culture of the team, trying to understand the type of football that requires me to be in the starting XI, to play regularly. For the first six months, it was a period of me getting to know the players around me because it’s a new team for me, a new environment. It was not an environment that I was comfortable in yet. But as time went by, I got comfortable with the guys, the type of football that we needed to play when the coaches give us instructions. For me to be continuously playing and trying to find my feet in the first six months, it was tough for me.

DF: Tell us more…

KM: The first six months, I think I put myself under a lot of pressure because I wanted to score that first goal. As strikers, we are judged by goals and assisting goals, but I reflected on something that my dad (Patrick Mayo) had said, that patience is key in football. (He said) I have to have a big heart in football. If you don’t have a big heart, and you don’t wait for your time, you end up being frustrated.You end up not wanting to do certain things in football. So, having someone who’s supportive, coming from a football family, someone who supports you and has played in that position that I’m playing, it’s an opportunity for me to use and I’m using it well currently. As a striker, if you don’t get goals and if you don’t assist goals, you are judged on that. So, when I went home after the six months, in the short break, I came back with a new mentality, meaning that don’t put yourself under lots of pressure to score that first goal, it must automatically come by itself. Find yourself in good positions to score and manage to take that touch and score. Because I was too anxious to get that first goal, it was something that I wanted so badly so I can get recognition in my first season. But I went from that break and I told myself, ‘No, this is not the type of style that I’m used to.’ But I had to settle first and get used to the players and the environment, and then for me to score and get in those scoring positions and being patient off the ball, to get yourself in those positions, it was just a matter of time.

DF: That first goal came in February this year...

KM: For me, I would say in my topflight football (career), that’s the most exciting thing I’ve ever done, coming from the GladAfrica Championship, where the style of play is different to what you used to play. Here in the PSL (topflight), it’s more of getting the results and being consistent in your performance, wanting to stay in the top four, Top Eight. So, I got that first goal and it was a great feeling for me to enjoy, because yho, it had been a long time! I’ve been coming on as a substitute and getting chances to score but not taking those chances. But I took my time where I had to take that first touch and get the ball into the back of the net where there’s no pressure around me at all. I told myself, ‘This one is in the net because I’m just in front of goal’, and it was a memorable feeling for me that I will cherish even over the

next five years. I’ll say, ‘This is the day when I got my first goal in the PSL.’

DF: You’ve scored four since then and have also been assigned the responsibility of taking spot kicks for the team. It says a lot about the faith your teammates have in your ability…

KM: Yeah, true. After training, I would stay and practice my free kicks. I know I possess a good left foot and a talented one and I have great technique, but it’s for me to polish that and I have to do extra training for me to polish that. I stay after training, practice free kicks, practice penalties, corner kicks, set-plays, because even the coach gave me the task and said, “It’s your time now. Here’s the time for you to shine.” At the start of the season, I was competing with the likes of Fagrie Lakay, Tashreeq Morris, people who have played in (the) South African topflight football. But when Fagrie left and ‘Tasie’ got injured, it was the time for me to step up and say I’m taking this opportunity and start scoring where Fagrie left off. It’s not for me to just fill in the position and be comfortable, no. What he was doing, he was scoring for the team, so I must also do the same thing he did, even though we have different types of styles we play. But I must also be part of the team, where I can contribute to the team’s ambitions and by scoring goals that can win us games. So many goals came after being patient, being in the right frame of mind, talking to people, the likes of Mpho Makola - since I’ve been in the club, he’s been advising me (on) how to do things because he has been playing for so long in the topflight. So, the likes of Thato Mokeke, Thami Mkhize, the experienced guys, Thabo Nodada… I mention all these guys experienced guys, and having their support has played a huge role in my life because they’ve been there. They know how it is when you’re given the task to be a striker and have to produce because a striker had just left and here’s an upcoming striker now, he has to produce and score goals. So, I think that, for me, is a great feeling to share a change room with these experienced guys and some of the guys that are coming up.

DF: Of course, your father used to be a striker before he was converted to a defender. Do you speak to him about areas of your game that can do with improvement?

KM: Coming from a football family like I do, my dad is very supportive with my career. He’s very supportive. Every time I go back home, we sit down, analyse my games and see how I can better myself because he has a striker’s instinct and he also has a defender’s instinct. He knows how a defender would think when the ball is coming towards them or they beat him with a pass. So, as a striker, you have to make certain types of runs for you to get yourself off the defender’s back to get that chance of scoring a goal and being one-on-one with the goalkeeper. So, he’s been supportive for the longest of times in my career. Even when I started my career at junior level, he was supportive. He was there for me. He told me things that I would endure or would face in football. As a striker playing up front, defenders would be charging at your back, you have to have that calmness and take your touch away from them or spin off and let them face their own goal, which is any defender’s nightmare. So, yeah, he’s been there for me.

DF: Did working with coach Tinkler at SuperSport United prove to be a boost in understanding how he wants his team to play?

KM: Yes, I think when coach Eric came to SuperSport first, he was the one who said I must go on loan for me to get more game-time because I was competing with Bradley Grobler, Jeremy Brockie, Kingston Nkhatha and Evans Rusike. So, there were so many strikers that I was competing against. But coming to Cape Town City and knowing he was the head coach, it gave me more of an advantage where he knew how I play and I knew what I’m demanded of as a player to produce, because there were times where, at SuperSport, I would play MDC (MultiChoice, now DStv Diski Challenge) for game-time but train with the first team. He was the coach and he knew what I possess, with the seasons that I had in the GladAfrica Championship. I think he also remembered that, ‘There’s an upcoming striker that I worked with, Khanyisa Mayo’, and that’s where I ended up being in the hands of coach Eric Tinkler, coming to Cape Town City and knowing well that we’ve worked with each other at SuperSport.

DF: Having seen what the likes of Kermit Erasmus and Surprise Ralani have produced in a Citizens’ jersey, especially in terms of goal contributions, did you feel any type of pressure to emulate what they did?

JM: I think yeah, there was that pressure because these are Bafana Bafana internationals. They played at the highest level of football, went to Afcon tournaments, they went to (the) Olympics, so I think the pressure was there. But for me to be rubbing shoulders with them, knowing that I’m competing with one of the best strikers in South Africa, it’s also something that you could take as a positive and you can learn so much from them as an upcoming young striker like I am. I can learn so much more from them because they have been there. Kermit (Erasmus) went overseas, he came back. Fagrie is now in Egypt. You can learn so many things rubbing shoulders with players that you play the same position with and you look up to, especially Kermit because he comes from PE (Gqeberha), so I’ve been watching Kermit since I was still young where he was at SuperSport. When he made it up to the first team at SuperSport, I was still watching him. Even when he came to Cape Town, he was on the highest form at his peak, finding himself in scoring positions. I was always trying to analyse his movements as a striker and also to have an understanding of how the defender moves, because Kermit will always be on the shoulder of the defender. Next thing, he is taking that final touch and scoring. Those are people that I rub shoulders with and look up to and watch their movements.