Seedat raring to outshine old club
DESPITE Ebrahim Seedat’s late start to club football, the 23-yearold Cape Town City defender already has an abundance of top-flight experience next to his name.
The left-footed player has had stints with Belgium side Lokeren, Degerfors in Sweden, the Absa Premiership’sBidvest Wits and Milano United in the National First Division (NFD) last season.
He was also part of the South African Under-20 side that competed in the eight -nations tournament in 2012.
Seedat started his football at the school of hard knocks on the Cape flats, while playing in the streets of Kewtown, in Athlone.
There, he quickly learnt that toughness meant everything or he’d be picking himself up bloodied and bruised; and that pure skill combined with quick thinking was the only way to wiggle himself out of the tight space they had on the court, in between the flats.
A former Belgravia High School pupil, he was unaware that the street soccer played in the afternoons would help set him up for a career in professional football.
The speedy left-back – who also plays as a winger – will once again get to use his durability, skill and eye for a swift counter attack in the elite league this season.
“I only started playing at the age of 13 when I joined Avendale Athletico. Before that, I only played soccer in the street with my friends. It was always competitive and fun, and at the time, that was enough for me,” said Seedat. “One afternoon, I went to the field to watch my friend (Yusrick Sconlow) play. They were one player short and the coach saw me sitting on the side of the field, so he asked me to put a jersey on and I never looked back.
“I had no playing card for that game but the coach sorted things out before we played. He started me as a left winger and I ended up scoring the only goal of the game,” he said.
Seedat went on to win the Player of the Year award at the end of that season with Avendale’s Under-13 side.
Two years later, he moved to the newly-formed ASD Academy. And, in their debut season, they won the Under-17 Engen tournament; and later made it to the final of the Under-19 Bayhill Cup – where they lost 3-2 against Komesho from Namibia.
Seedat was on the sidelines during City’s two opening matches while Aubrey Modiba occupied the left-back role. Now, with Modiba’s transfer to SuperSport United, the youngster from Kewtown is confident he’ll make his first appearance for City against his former club Wits, in the MTN8 semi-final, first leg on Saturday.
“We’ve had a great start to the season and everything in the camp has been perfect so far. This season is going to be a defining one for me and I can’t wait to contribute to the success of the team.
“I enjoyed my time at Wits so it will be great to play there again. I think that if we can prevent their long balls played into the box then we can stop them from scoring,” said Seedat.
@FootballFaan THE TERM “MultiChoice Diski Challenge (MDC) graduate” has been used loosely by the tournament’s organisers. Every player who has passed through it has been labelled with that term. But they aren’t completely wrong because the MDC isn’t about developing talent. It’s about giving that talent an opportunity to get fine-tuned, serving as the bridge between the academy and first team football. Menzi Masuku is the tournament’s poster child because of how seamless his transition to the Orlando Pirates’ first team was. He scored four goals in four appearances towards the end of the 2014/15 season. One of those goals, earned him the Absa Premiership Goal-of-the-Season award. Emmanuel Letlotlo and Liam Jordan also found themselves in the MDC. Letlotlo forced Kaizer Chiefs to promote him to their first team after finishing last season as the top goalscorer. While there was no denying Jordan’s talent, his readiness was an issue. Bidvest Wits played him in their reserve team where he found his feet. The Under-20 international is now in the books of Portuguese giants Sporting Lisbon. Justice Chabalala bulldozed his way into the Free State Stars’ first team after leading Ea Lla Koto well in the MDC. Pirates signed him because of how much he grew in a short space of time.