Kekana to speak to Sundowns owners as he eyes return to Chloorkop

Hlompho Kekana will go down as arguably the greatest man to don the captain’s armband at Mamelodi Sundowns, and after an official farewell this past weekend, Kekana hopes to return to Masandawana in a different capacity.

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When he became surplus to requirements on the field at the end of the 2020/21 season, “Gonzalez” was offered a role by club chairman Thlopie Motsepe, but the former Bafana Bafana midfielder opted to seek for playing time elsewhere. That did not quite work out as he spent a whole season without a team and is not hoping that the offer to re-join Sundowns still stands.

“When I left the club, the opportunity was there for me to be part of the team,” Kekana reiterated.

“I will speak to the dignitaries and the owners of the team and try to check if the opportunity is still there. It has been a year since I left Sundowns and if it is there, I will be a very lucky guy from the village if the offer does not expire.

“I would be very fortunate and humbled to get that opportunity again as a player who has been at a club for that long. But it is not given, it is not guaranteed, we all know that football has a way to humble us.

“Giving back is something that I am working on as a person. I have worked with so many coaches and they inspired me to be the player who I was and there are so many things that I left in my career. One of them is to lead players and people. I was very fortunate to be given that opportunity to lead Sundowns,” he added.

During trophy-laden decade-long stay at Chloorkop, he has lifted five league titles, the Caf Champions League and Super Cup, just to name a few. When it comes to individual achievements, he does not rate anything above his Fifa Puskas Award nominations.

“One day I hope to lead the younger ones and to let them know that the game that we love is very fragile. At the same time, it is a game that nobody can ever predict. I never predicted that I would be nominated for the Fifa Puskas Award twice. I was shocked when I got that email,” said Kekana.

“I even showed one of my neighbours, one Afrikaaner guy… he was like ‘ah Hlompho what is Fifa’, and I had to explain. It was beautiful to know that Fifa knows Hlompho, the guy from the village. And in that, the kids need to know that you can achieve whatever you want to achieve. You just need the right guidance. I made it this far through whatever guidance that I got,” he adds.