Orlando Pirates' Relebohile Mofokeng has broken the age-old mentality of SA football

WOULDN’T IT BE grand were Relebohile Mofokeng to win all the five awards he has been nominated for at the 2024/25 PSL Awards to be held next Tuesday? Imagine, a 20-year-old dominating the country’s football awards.

The young Orlando Pirates superstar is the most nominated player following a fantastic season in which he carried the Buccaneers on his young shoulders, leading them to yet another runners-up position in the league; victory in the MTN8 as well as a place in the Nedbank Cup final.

Mofokeng will contest the two coveted main prizes – the Footballer of the Year as well as the Player’s Player of the Year awards with both Lucas Ribeiro of Mamelodi Sundowns and Sekhukhune United’s Keletso Makgalwa.

In addition to those awards, the young lad is also in contention for the Betway Premiership Young Player of the Season, the MTN8 Last Man Standing accolade and the Nedbank Cup Most Promising Player.

Already a huge role model for youngsters the country over, Mofokeng will surely get many more boys (and girls) asking their parents to sign them into academies should he win most of those awards.

A clean-sweep is highly unlikely – what with Ribeiro having had the stellar season that he did with Sundowns. The Brazilian was a colossus for Bafana ba Style as they held on to their title and his immense effort should surely see him walking away with either the Footballer of the Year or Player’s Player awards.

In a country where players hardly make into the elite league level in their teens, Mofokeng has broken the mould, the lad from Sharpeville having his breakthrough season at just 19 and then shining bright in his second campaign.

Such has been his impact that it actually sounds strange for him to be nominated for the Nedbank Cup’s Most Promising Player. Mofokeng, promising? That cannot be. Not when he has already been a key figure at a club as big as Pirates. Not when he is already a member of the country’s senior national team and shown himself capable of shining even at that highest international level.

But that award is given to players under the age of 23 years and Mofokeng fits the bill. He was a key figure in Pirates reaching the final and will likely win it ahead of his teammates Mbekezeli Mbokazi and Mohau Nkota. And should he stay at Pirates, he would be eligible for the award for the next two years. But would he still qualify as most promising player?

Surely this is something the organizers should consider going forward with these awards.

Mofokeng should definitely win more than a couple of awards and that will see him adding his name alongside that of the legendary Siyabonga Nomvethe, who needed help carrying his trophies that year when he shone for Gordon Igesund’s Moroka Swallows.

It would be a remarkable yet well-deserved achievement for one so young. And though he has already induced a mindset change in local coaches to say consider the ability and not one’s age for signing them up for the elite team, his success is sure to see many young players being given a chance.

After all, didn’t the great Pele of Brazil play at the World Cup when he was just 17?

Spain’s Lamine Yamal dazzled at the European Championships and he was also just a teenager.

Relebohile Mofokeng’s nomination for five awards should be the turning point in the country’s game. It should be the key that opens up doors for youngsters to play at the highest level and for clubs and coaches to rid themselves of the mentality that 25-year-old players are youngsters.