Lebese to face father figure Ertugral

IT S been eight years since Muhsin

’ Ertugral brought an unknown George Lebese to Kaizer Chiefs and he s gone on to become one of their

’ most prized possessions.

Ertugral is renowned for introducing youngsters to first team football wherever he goes, so when he eventually left Naturena in 2009, he left them with a 19-year-old player who has since played a key role in their two Absa Premiership titles and in a number of knockout competition triumphs.

Now in the hot seat at Orlando Pirates, Ertugral has to find a way to stop the all-grown up and in-form Lebese, who has scored twice in Amakhosi s last four league matches.

’ The Soweto derby will be played at Soccer City on Saturday.

It was first “strange when he [Ertugral] left the team to join another team. It was an unfamiliar picture, but I got to understand that he is working,” said Lebese. He gave me a “first run in the PSL and each time I see him I shake his hand to show him how thankful I am. He is the one “who personally asked Bobby (Motaung) to sign me. He was risking with a small boy like me. He remains a father figure to me. But we will be looking to get one over him in the derby.

” Lebese, a Mamelodi boy, grew up watching the Soweto derby and he s been involved

’ in quite a lot of them since making his Amakhosi debut. I grew up as a Pretoria boy “and I used to support a different team, but I used to watch the derby and the whole country stops. It s a game that “’ made extremely big players today. It s a

’ game where you can make a name for yourself as a player and win the game for the supporters. It s very big. As “’ we speak there are people who are already telling us not to lose the game and they are already telling us what to do. So it tells us the expectations from the fans. If we don t make them proud, it s “’ ’ difficult to go out on the streets. So we don t want that,” Lebese said. ’ Four wins in a row in the league makes Chiefs the favourites going into the game, against a Pirates side that has drawn three on the trot. They are direct competition, “so winning against them would set the tone. It s important for us to “’ win that game. [But] form does not count in the derby. Whichever team that s on form ’ can lose, but we don t want to be the losing team. ’ We want to get three points on the day.”

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