Stellies star has chance to make his mark on SA football
Smiso Msomi
The impressive growth of Stellenbosch FC’s Devin Titus has seen him become one of the most important players for the club in what has been a historic 2023/24 season so far.
It has become a family tradition for Stellies to grant one of their own top-flight opportunities and they have good reason to be pleased about it.
Before Young Player of the Season contender Titus shot to prominence, came the likes of Iqraam Rayners who was promoted with the club in 2019. After him came Ashley du Preez who scored bundles of goals in the 2021/22 campaign to secure a move to Soweto giants Kaizer Chiefs and form part of Bafana Bafana as well.
Now it is the turn of the 23-year-old to make his mark on South African football and increase the stocks of future Western Cape-born talents. Titus has been integral in Stellies’ continuous pursuit to become one of the best ‘organically’ manufactured teams in the DStv Premiership.
His 11 goals and three assists and overall influence on the right-hand side of Steve Barker’s team see him tussle with Rayners for the tag of Stellies’ most important player.
After winning the club’s Young Player of the Season award last season, he has now gone up a few levels as he looks to claim the DStv Young Player of the Season title.
Titus is expected to have stifling competition though, with teenagers Relebohile Mofokeng and Shandre Campbell of Orlando Pirates and SuperSport United respectively also in contention. His excellent performance has played a huge part in Stellies’ historic unbeaten streak of 20 games.
He also scored two goals to help the club win their first-ever top-flight trophy when they lifted the Carling Knockout Cup in December.
Next on the menu for Stellenbosch is a trip to the Peter Mokaba Stadium on Wednesday against Sekhukhune as they look to solidify their CAF Champions League spot. Both teams find themselves in surprisingly excellent positions at this stage of the season with fourth-placed Babina Noko four points off Stellies in second spot.
Stellies and Sekhukhune hold one of the most bizarre head-to-head stats, having drawn five of their six encounters in all competitions.
The one anomaly was a win for Sekhukhune that came last season thanks to a Chuibuke Ohizo first-half strike.
The incentive will be on the shoulders of Titus and co to try to grab a first-ever win over their Limpopo-based opponents or at the very least stretch their unbeaten streak to an unprecedented 21 matches.
However, Stellies head coach Steve Barker will be confident in knowing his side have scored 14 goals in their last five outings in all competitions after dismantling Matsatsantsa last time out.