Thabiso Sesane had to bide his time at Orlando Pirates but has become a fixture in their defence, writes Mazola Molefe.
Orlando Pirates have plucked another one out of their loan army and are reaping the rewards with defender Thabiso Sesane.
The 24-year-old was promoted to the Buccaneers first team by Josef Zinnbauer having shown the kind of consistency that warranted the German mentor handing him his debut in the preliminary round of the African Confederation Cup.
However, just seven games during the 2020/21 campaign suggested that perhaps the rock solid Sesane was not ready to graduate.
The centre-back was then sent away to Jomo Cosmos in the lower division – there is no better league and club to toughen you up like South Africa’s second tier and Ezenkosi, the side owned and coached by the legendary Jomo Sono.
But with Cosmos failing to retain their status in the Motsepe Foundation Championship and now being rendered an amateur club, Pirates took Sesane to All Stars FC where coach Sinethemba Badela should be credited with giving the player another platform to remind Pirates of their investment.
Fast forward to the current campaign, and the early injury to Tapelo Xoki opened the door for Sesane to cement his place in coach Jose Riviero’s team, first alongside Olisa Ndah and later Nkosinathi Sibisi.
Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos was impressed too. “I think at the moment [early in the season] Pirates and Stellenbosch are the two teams who have played the best football, and that means the players in those teams are good players also,” the Belgian mentor said when he named Sesane in his 23-man squad for the African Cup of Nations back-to-back qualifiers against Congo Brazzaville in October.
“When we have an injury to [Siyabonga] Ngezana we were looking at him, and other players, but especially him because he’d played in all of Pirates’ matches since the beginning of the season. He is a good defender and also good in building [from the back]. So, after a discussion with [assistant coach] Helman Mkhalele, we thought he was the best replacement for the moment.”
Sesane is not just a player for the moment though, his trajectory and patience are exactly what Pirates hope for when a young prospect shows signs of becoming a key figure for the club sooner rather than later.
And that is where Riveiro has bought in when it comes to the philosophy of the Buccaneers as seen with players like Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota in the three years he has been in charge.
The Spanish tactician’s motto is to reward hard work and has proven in his tenure to date that if you are good enough then you are old enough.
Riveiro said about Sesane: “The key is to be on the field constantly, it means you’re doing well during the week, you are in good shape, good space etc.
When the competition comes, you are at a level that Orlando Pirates needs, and that’s the case.
“Obviously, as much as you play, the confidence grows, and winning and clean sheets help a lot for them. He’s surrounded by excellent football players as well, in the front, left, right and behind. In the end, we try to be a team that looks good, but the key is to be a collective.”
Sesane has quite the role model too – former centre-back Happy Jele holds the record for the most starts in Pirates’ history with 402 and is someone that is admired by the young defender.
“He is someone I have always looked up to in the team,” Sesane told iDiski Times. “So the day he saw me playing in the development he came to me and told me to continue playing the way I have been.
“We started talking and I played with him. We started talking a lot and even now we are still talking.
“Even after the Magesi game (a 3–2 loss in the Carling Knockout), he was the first person to call me and told me to keep my chin up and things like that, because he is a person who sort of raised me in the game. He is like a father to me.”
If Sesane can have half the career at Pirates that Jele did, he will have gone far.
