In a different life, Spiwe Given Msimango would not be the cool, calm centre-back. Instead, he would wear Number 10, not Number 5, trying to create goals for strikers rather than thwart them.
Growing up in Brakpan, a mining town on the East Rand, Msimango was an elegant attacking midfielder. Now he is a sleek centre-back – a No. 10 trapped in a defender’s body – who has become central to TS Galaxy’s plans.
“He was 11 years old when he came to us. He played left-wing because we didn’t have too many left-footed players, and then he would play at number 10. On the wing, he was struggling because he didn’t have pace,” Peace Lovers coach Molefe ‘Coach, Zoro’ Ntogatse, tells FARPost.
GOOD OL’ DAYS IN MIDFIELD
Msimango vividly remembers those good ol’ days in the middle of the park. Of course, football back then was merely a pastime, but having the ball at his feet meant everything to him. “I was a midfielder when I was young,” Msimango says. “I think that’s why I am comfortable on the ball, because I started as a No. 10, then a No. 6, and now I’m a defender.”
Molefe worked with Msimango for six years through their formative teenage years. He was one of the few boys from Leachville who walked for an hour in the scorching heat of Brakpan to try their luck at the club. “It was quite a long walk, but we never even felt it because we were too excited that we were going to play a game we loved so much,” adds Msimango.
Before the lengthy stint with Lovers, young Msimango turned out for an amateur side in Leachville. “I started playing at seven; I would often follow my brother because he loved football,” Msimango tells FARPost.
Interestingly, the brother he would follow to play football lost interest along the way, leaving the last born of their family deep in love with the game. After four years of playing for Leachville Shooters, the youngster had heard of how Ntogatse had the knack of taking players to trials with top academies in the country.
THE MAMELODI SUNDOWNS TRIAL
“I went there because I heard they used to take players to trials with big teams,” Msimango says.
True to his reckoning, the young No. 10 would soon get an opportunity to trial with Mamelodi Sundowns. While that trial was unsuccessful, it was the turning point, at least according to Ntogatse.
“He failed that trial dismally, maybe because he didn’t have the pace to play on the wing. After that trial, I decided to move him to defensive midfield. I initially played him in central midfield for two games, and he excelled. From there, he mastered the position, and it became his,” the 45-year-old coach says.
The teenager took to his new position, like fish to water. Not only did his football career transform, but they started noticing some beautiful changes at home. “He became so passionate about football. A lot of things revolved around ‘the coach said’. But it was beautiful because we saw him becoming a responsible young man; he became so focused and teachable,” his elder sister, Mpumelelo, tells FARPost, adding how he used to imitate wrestlers when he was younger.
Perhaps that transformation was why he was appointed prefect at Liverpool Secondary School. Raised by a domestic worker mom and a dad working as a baker, his chances of attending varsity were slim. Football would be the key to university education.
HIS EVOLUTION WAS ALREADY HALFWAY
Mandla Zwane, the coach at UJ, remembers hearing about a boy whose talents could quickly transform their team. “We invited him for a trial, and we were impressed by the basics he applied in his game,” Zwane tells FARPost.
At the time, aged 19, his evolution was already halfway. He had swiftly transitioned from No. 10 to No. 6, but an overload of midfield talents at the University of Johannesburg meant the transformation had to continue.
“He came in as a midfielder. We converted him to a centre-back because we had too many players in midfield, and we didn’t want to lose him. Since he was a bit slowish and our game was based on pressing from the top, we wanted quicker people. So we moved him to central defence,” explains Zwane, adding that the youngster did not disappoint.
Msimango quickly admits that his perspective of the game changed after UJ gave him a scholarship. “After UJ gave me a scholarship, I looked at that opportunity as a way of me getting through school. We then played the Under 20s, coached by David Notoane and Thabo Senong. They called me up to the Under 20s.
“It was a whole different world; the way the team was prepared was quite professional. I realised that I was among young superstars, which meant the coaches saw something I’d never seen in me. After that call-up, I took football seriously,” Msimango reveals.
GIVEN MSIMANGO THE NUMBER 10
While all his previous coaches differed on his ideal position, one thing remained constant. The boy was a born leader. Like his teachers who appointed him a prefect at Liverpool, his football coaches made him captain of their troops.
“Captaining UJ in the 2017 Varsity Football tournament was a big deal to me, but captaining TS Galaxy is the highlight of my career,’ says the modest Msimango. After just a year in the Varsity League, the converted defender was snapped up by Highlands Park, who handed him his first professional contract.
“Coach Owen scouted him for Highlands Park from UJ, and he came in with a lot of promise. He had the height and developed quite well,” former Highlands Park and Galaxy biokinetist Simone Conley tells FARPost. “It helped that he played alongside someone as experienced as Bevan Fransman; he learned quite a lot from him.”
Once he took up the game professionally, it became a struggle to juggle studies and football as UJ never offered part-time studying. But because he felt the urge to continue with school, he switched to Unisa, studying towards a Diploma in Business Management.
“We make a lot of money in a short time as footballers, and you need to have a business mind to invest for life after football. Football is ruthless. You don’t want to be begging for money when you’re older,” the 25-year-old explains.
In the modern game, many attacking moves are deemed to start from the back – whether in a counter-attacking move or simply as part of a free-flowing attack. Msimango, whose passing range and vision can match any CAM, excels as the archetypal ball-playing defender.
PUSHING THE BALL BEYOND THEM
The former youth international goes beyond the usual confines of forward passing. Not simply laying it off to a midfielder but pushing the ball beyond them when he can and finding a winger or overlapping full-back to initiate moves higher up the pitch.
Such are his qualities: good passing and vision, blended with attributes such as tackling, marking and heading.
Nonetheless, Coach Zoro – the man who still thinks his best position is central midfield. “I prefer him at defensive No. 6. At TS and Highlands Park, I see he’s done well in central defence, but I feel he’s best at No. 6. As coaches, we don’t see the same,” Coach Zoro concludes.
Conley is convinced that if he can improve his decision-making, he can easily walk into any of the country’s big clubs. Interestingly, reports are that he has signed a four-year deal with Kaizer Chiefs that will see him move to Naturena in June.
But the No. 10 trapped in a defender’s body has one thing in mind – he wants to get into that Bafana Bafana set-up and take his game to Europe while also preparing for life after football.
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