Pirates prodigy keeps on learning
YOUNGSTER ADMITS BEING DEMOTED WAS A MASSIVE WAKE-UP CALL
With every experience comes a lesson and such is the case for promising 18-year old Orlando Pirates midfielder Augustine Mahlonoko who is now learning from his mistakes.
Just over a year ago, Mahlonoko was the hot topic in the South African football fraternity after he was promoted to the Bucs senior team as a 16-year old, just before his 17th birthday in August, but he has since been forgotten in top-flight football, as he is now playing for Pirates ABC Motsepe League team Pele-Pele FC (Pirates development side).
Playing for Pirates was a dream come true for the Sebokeng-born player, who later realised that hanging around the wrong friends, and not taking his career and education seriously was soon going to be something he would regret one day.
“It opened my eyes to choose the right friends and when there are obstacles I should just sit down rather than just saying “no, this is difficult”, because you can do anything if you have the desire to do it and put the effort in it. If I can go back and fix my mistakes, I can put in more work and ignore the fame, it will come later on and just focus on my career,” the teenager revealed.
“If I can get another chance that’s what I will fix, fame is fame, everyone will know me as Augustine, but then, what about your work, what are you doing at training or inside the field. How do you eat, how do you take care of yourself? That’s what is important for a soccer player because your body is what you work with, so you must take care of it.
“Last season I broke the record for being the young player at Pirates, everyone was talking to me, but I just sat down and listened and but didn’t take what they were telling me into my head until I saw and learned the hard way. I used to speak to coach Rulani Mokwena, coach Micho Sredojevic and they would give me advice here and there, like handling pressure and all those sorts of things. I had a good relationship with them. Then came coach Fadlu Davids and his brother, so they also used to advise me and I was like ‘I’m still young, even if I don’t get a chance this season I will get another chance in the future.’ I took that as an advantage. But, it was my weakness because as a young player I had dreams of not just playing for Pirates, but to go overseas and help my country to play in the World Cup.”
Mahlonoko recalls the times when he had people advising him on how to take care of his career, but only got to realise that people who were talking only wanted the best for him until he was called into the Pirates offices and told that he was being demoted, with fame and the spotlight something very difficult for him to handle.
“So, I can just say that fame got into my head, I lost concentration and focus. Coach Augusto Palacios used to call me when we were off and talk to me. But, I would just listen and say that the old man is just talking and boring me until I saw that things were starting to get real. I should have taken that advice I was getting,” he added.
“The office called me, I remember we went to a photo-shoot and I think it was a week before we went into pre-season and they told me, ‘Look man, you didn’t get enough game time last season and your behaviour is getting out of hand. We don’t have a choice but to take you back to the development team.’ They didn’t want me to play in MultiChoice Diski Challenge because they were not getting money, so at least at Pele-Pele they getting something. And again, the competition at Pele-Pele and playing in the ABC Motsepe League is much more competitive than the MDC. It will grow me and I was told that I would be called after this season after checking my performances and how many goals I scored and assists I made.”
The midfielder explained that trying to strike a balance between football and school was one of the difficult things for him, which led to him dropping out. But he is looking to go back to school one day.
“I decided to drop out of school because you should remember that I was in grade 11 when they promoted me and it was early after we went to Brazil with the Project X tour. Then I went to pre-season with the first team and I missed a lot of assignments and exams. Sometimes I would just go to school once a month because you hade to report to training,”