Hotto one step away from living up to his promise
Confed Cup a chance for midfielder to fulfil dream
Influential Orlando Pirates winger Deon Hotto has vowed to go all out to make sure he wins the CAF Confederation Cup with the club to support the statement he made when he came that he joined the Sea Robbers to win trophies.
Pirates will trade blows with RS Berkane, the 2019/20 season’s Confed Cup champions, in the final of the same tournament at Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Nigeria’s Uyo on Friday (9pm SA time).
Hotto, whose five assists in the competition played a crucial role to send Pirates to the final, wants the Confed Cup trophy at all costs as he sees it as a perfect opportunity to substantiate the assertion he made when he joined from Wits that the reason he linkedup with Bucs was that he wants to win cups.
“When I joined Pirates my aim was to come here and win silverware for the team. This is my second year. Last season we won the MTN8. This year, everything is gone... the league, the Nedbank Cup and the MTN8.
“What’s there for us now is the Confederation Cup, so we’ve to go all out and bring the cup home.
“I promise to go an extra mile,” said Hotto during Orlando Pirates’ media open day at Orlando Stadium yesterday.
“Our last game here [at Orlando Stadium against Al Ahli Tripoli of Libya in the second leg of the competition’s semis on Sunday] we lost [1-0, having won the away fixture 2-0]. We didn’t have a good game.
“Our fans were here, they wanted us to seal the qualification to the final in style, but we didn’t manage to do that; we can’t look back now. The task is on Friday, so we will definitely make our fans happy on Friday by lifting the Confederation Cup.”
Hotto also insisted he’s not feeling any pressure that he hasn’t netted a goal en route to the final.
“There’s no pressure. As a midfielder, my main thing is always to assist my teammates and sometimes score and there won’t be any difference of Friday.”