Pitso Mokoena is a man with an eye for talent. Year after year, since the turn of the millennium, he would bring together hundreds of boys just to scan through them and find gems he would further develop.
And so, in November 2012, he embarked on that fulfilling but taxing exercise. It had become an annual routine. Like any other scout, he knew it was hit or miss in the scouting game. As the day started at 8AM with boys from areas surrounding Virginia tussling it out for places at the Harmony Academy, his expectations were well controlled. You had boys from Welkom, Allanridge, Hennenman, Odendaalsrus, Ventersburg, Meloding and Bethlehem.
The Harmony Academy grounds, located on the goldfields of the Free State province, were teeming with multitudes of youngsters, all entertaining hopes of making the grade.
Sipho Mbule was one of those that had travelled for two hours from Bethlehem to try his luck. “I knew about Harmony Academy from a few guys who had moved there from my school – Mtsu Secondary School. I envied the academy players so much and wanted to go there.
“Harmony first noticed me playing in the Copa Coca-Cola Under 15 tournament in Bloemfontein in 2012 and invited me for the trials,” Mbule tells FARPost.
That two-hour trip obviously came with its uncertainties. There were no guarantees he would make it. But to his young mind, none of that mattered at all. I mean, it meant spending the entire day with his buddies from Bethlehem and getting to play his favourite game. By 6AM, their transport was already on the way to Virginia.
PITSO MOKOENA SPLIT THEM UP
Mokoena remembers the arrival of the Bethlehem crew in two taxis just in time for the first batch of trialists. They seemed like a united front. However, to get what he wanted to achieve, he split them.
“When the boys came in from Bethlehem, I split them up and placed them in different groups for the trials. I didn’t want them to play in the same teams since they knew each other,” Mokoena explains to FARPost.
The ‘90s Free State Stars player had his work cut out. He had to run the rule over 700 kids. Each group would get 14 minutes to show what they were capable of in a 11v11 match.
He quickly admits that a lot of talent may have slipped through his fingers, with all honesty. But he just wasn’t going to miss the boy from the Vuka area in Bohlokong. The bony youngster’s body frame would have easily deceived anyone, especially considering he was facing boys who looked a lot bigger than him, but not his watchful eye.
Once he had the ball at his feet, he had the arrogance that said, ‘it’s all mine’. “Sipho [Mbule] was part of the second group. I pulled him out after just five minutes because I had seen what I wanted to see. It was still early, around 8am, which meant I had to keep him around until 4PM for the final,” recalls Mokoena.
Interestingly, Mbule was a young up and coming winger at the time. He enjoyed pacing up the right-wing, giving defenders a torrid time.
MBULE IMPRESSED IN LESS THAN FIVE MINUTES
“Sipho caught my eye in less than five minutes. He was that good; I only needed five minutes with him. So, just to make sure he didn’t run away, I took him to my office, switched on my computer for him to play games,” says the man who now heads the academy started by former Kaizer Chiefs coach Molefi Ntseki.
In his mind, he was so convinced the computer games would keep the Bohlokong boy distracted so he would not disappear thinking it was over for him. However, football was the staple back in Bohlokong, a Bethlehem township named after the hloko/bohloko grass.
After a few minutes in the coach’s workstation, Mbule was back on the pitchside playing with his friends from ekasi.
“I then went up to him and asked him if he had locked my office, which I knew he didn’t. So, I gave him my keys, hoping that he would not leave without telling me since he’d have to give me my keys,” says Mokoena.
His plan worked. He was able to keep him until late afternoon when he had to finalise his selection.
Again, when it came to the final selection, there was little pondering over Mbule. Together with the boys he had picked along the way, he made up four semi-final teams that would play 20 minutes.
“He only played 10 minutes, and my mind was made up,” adds Mokoena. His task was not over, however. He had to jealously guard his newly found gemstone to make sure he was not to be snapped up by another admirer between November and January.
ESCAPING THE EYE OF WALTER STEENBOK BY A HAIRSBREADTH
As a scout, he knew pretty well that his colleagues, particularly from Gauteng, often did rounds in the Free State in search of talent. He was right because Mbule had earlier escaped the eye of Mamelodi Sundowns scout Walter Steenbok by a hairsbreadth.
“I watched them in the Engen tournament, and I loved Teboho Mokoena while Thomas Nare [who was also a Sundowns scout] insisted that I also look at Sipho Mbule,” Steenbok tells FARPost.
Nare adds: “I kept telling this guy that if you are taking this one [Mokoena], also take this one [Mbule].”
Of course, Mokoena signed a deal with Sundowns but fell through as they wanted him to finish his Grade 12 the following year.
“Between November and January, I would often travel to Bethlehem to greet him [Mbule] and make sure he is still playing soccer. I also wanted to assure him that he was still coming to Harmony Academy.
“When I knew SuperSport United were doing trials in Bethlehem, I invited all the boys I had picked to Virginia to come and play friendly matches so that SuperSport would not spot them,” explains Mokoena.
In January 2013, Mbule started his journey at the academy. “I went there as a winger, but they changed me to play central midfield,” he recalls, adding that it was a worthwhile switch.
Mokoena reveals how opponents dreaded playing against Mbule. The boy was skilful, often leaving defenders for dead with his trademark U-turns. He also had the knack for scoring goals.
BEATING SWANSEA CITY
“Whenever I taught them the technique of passing and shooting, I’d do it for three months. You could tell Sipho was bored because he was good. I was just wasting his time because he had it all mastered,” the academy mentor adds.
Mbule, who was part of the Harmony team that beat English Premier League team Swansea City’s juniors 3-1 at the Under-19 Bayhill Premier Cup in April 2015, was instrumental as the academy won the Engen tournament nine times in a row, a feat he singles out as special in the early days of his career.
Interestingly, SuperSport scout Godfrey Mosoetsa, who had lured Teboho Mokoena the previous year, spotted him at the Engen Champ of Champs at the University of Pretoria in 2017.
“I saw him in the Engen tournament. In that kind of tournament, you always look for a boy who’s an impact player and effective. You want to see him able to create and score goals. Sipho was able to do both,” Mosoetsa tells FARPost.
His childhood friend Teboho Mokoena, who had moved to the Tshwane side a year prior, says a reunion was inevitable.
“We had known each other from a young age while playing in primary school, but we weren’t as close until we went to Harmony,” the national team player tells FARPost.
Mbule admits that once he moved to Tshwane, all he could see in front of him were possibilities. It didn’t take Stuart Baxter too long to promote him to the first team. “I played two or three games in the MDC, and Stuart Baxter told me I was a good player. He thought I was confident on the ball,” the 26-year-old midfield ace says.
THE MTN8 CROWN
And then he introduced himself to top-flight football in style when he scored a scorcher in SuperSport United’s 2-1 loss to TP Mazembe in the final of the Confederation Cup late in 2017. “That’s one of my memorable moments in SuperSport colours; it was special,” he says.
However, his light would dim a little over the next year, with Baxter giving the nod to a much more experienced Reneilwe Letsholonyane in the engine room.
But when Letsholonyane left the club at the end of the 2018/19 season, he took his game a notch up, scoring three goals and registering two assists in 28 League games.
His contribution inspired the Pretoria outfit to the MTN8 crown. He was duly rewarded when named the club’s Player’s Player of the Season.
He developed into a vital cog in coach Kaitano Tembo’s engine room, featuring in 24 League games the following season. He hit the target four times while providing five assists.
After a tumultuous end to his Matsatsantsa stint, Mbule moved to neighbours Sundowns, reuniting with his boyhood teammate Mokoena. But that two-year stint did not go as well as he anticipated. Having started 23 games across all competitions, he was shipped out to Sekhukhune United on loan. That, too, went south, and his contract with the Brazilians was not renewed.
After months of speculation linking him with Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates, he ended up at the Bucs. It all felt like a final chance for a renaissance. And indeed, it has looked like it. His form for the Buccaneers earned him a place in Bafana’s AFCON squad. Now is exactly the time for the Master Chef to show the world who he really is.
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