They made me feel small
Melusi Buthelezi has his childhood mates to thank for the football journey travelled, which has seen him stake his claim as one of South Africa’s top goalkeepers after eight clean sheets in a row for TS Galaxy (three in the last three games of last season and five in the opening five matches of the current campaign). Playing in the amateur ranks as a 10-year-old, the team’s goalkeeper was missing in action, and being the tallest among the lot, he was called upon to fill in as a replacement. He tried to dodge his way out
Tokelo Mokhesi: How would you sum up your start to the new season? Until just recently, after five league matches, you remained the only goalkeeper yet to concede.
Melusi Buthelezi:
I’ve been waiting patiently for an opportunity to play as I didn’t feature for almost three years at TS Galaxy, but I was working hard at training and pushing myself, so I think the hard work is finally paying off, and you can see with my performances so far this season. I’m so happy that everything is going the way I’ve always wished as now I’m playing. I had targets to say in the opening five matches of the season in the month of August, I want to keep at least three clean sheets, but then God works in mysterious ways.
Galaxy, as well, has started the season well because this is our best start in the Premiership.
TM: When you were not playing, what kept you going? MB: There is nothing of this task, but his friends would have none of it – the rest is history. So impressive have the 24-year-old’s performances been that some have called for coach Hugo Broos to include the Nquthu-born star in his Bafana Bafana squad to be announced this week for the friendlies against Sierra Leone and Botswana. How did he turn his fortunes around after being out in the cold for some time? Soccer Laduma’s Tokelo Mokhesi sat down with Buthelezi as he details his challenges in the game. I know besides football. I didn’t further my studies after Matric, I just decided to stick to football, so giving up was not an option as I have nowhere to go, nothing else to do besides play football. This is a job that helps me put food on the table as my family is depending on me. I’m a breadwinner, so I can’t give up as I have a lot of responsibilities. So, I would push myself all the time hoping that God would open the door for me to play and showcase my talent. I told myself that once I get the opportunity, I will grab it with both hands as I’ve been hungry for it.
TM: Why do you think it took so long for you to get a chance to play?
MB:
You know, when you are a goalkeeper, more especially in the PSL, and you are young, under 23, they don’t take you seriously because you don’t have the experience. So, maybe the coaches had doubted my ability as a goalie. I didn’t have a
lot of experience in the Premiership. I was just a boy from Jomo Cosmos when I joined Galaxy. I arrived at Galaxy when I was 22, and it was not easy for a coach to trust a 22-year-old boy with little experience, but I kept on working hard. There was a time when coach Owen da Gama wanted to give me a chance in the 2020/21 season, and we were fighting for a Top Eight spot. We were playing the penultimate game of that season and Da Gama said I will play that match and he told me that during the week at training, but on matchday, in the morning he said, “Melusi, it won’t be possible for us to play you.” Like, he told me stories, which I won’t really explain to you, and I was like, “Okay, it is your decision.” I was okay with it and I didn’t even ask why. I kept going.
TM: How did that make you feel? MN: In the last game of that season, we lost against Kaizer Chiefs and couldn’t make it into the Top Eight, and I was supposed to play against Stellenbosch FC the second-last game. They were fighting relegation and needed ab t three points o survive, so the whole week I had been p eparing for the game, and on the day of the match I was told I wouldn’t play. I had travelled with Wensten van der Linde for the game, and he ended up playing and, after that, Marlon Heugh joined us when he travelled from Cape Town to Mbombela. So, they took me out of the 18-man squad to face Chiefs. The funny thing is they only told me I was not part of the team at OR Tambo International Airport, as we were waiting for a bus to
“It was disappointing the way things were done and I didn’t take it well.”
Mbombela from the Stellies game, so I had to return home as Marlon took my place. It was disappointing the way things were done and I didn’t take it well, to be honest. They made me feel small. Like, they could have told me the news when we left Cape Town, not (to tell me) at OR Tambo that I have to go home, so I could organise everything, transport. But I don’t want to talk much about it. I continued to work hard, and today I’m playing. EvenifIwasnotgoingtoask