Mawande writes...
A
story of a cheat, failure or half fulfilled potential?
Considering
I was a massive fan of Benedict Vilakazi in times gone by, I must admit that I
am a little disappointed that his career never hit the highs I and many
professionals thought he would or deserved to.
At
one point, he was probably the brightest young player in the country. Benedict
Vilakazi burst on the South African football scene as a 17 year old in the
Vodacom Challenge in the colours of Orlando Pirates in 1999. He seemed quite an
accomplished footballer from very early on, earning high praise from his coach
at the Buccaneers at the time, one Gordon Igesund. He rose to stardom fairly
quickly, captaining the SA under 20 and under 23 teams very early in his career
and earned his first cap for the senior national team when he was only 20 years
old.
 |
| Bafana Bafana: Coulda been an all-time great. |
Ordinarily,
you might expect the story of an exceptionally talented youngster with great
achievements notched up early in his career to go on to bigger things and
achieve legendary status by the end of the story. However, the story of the man
dubbed 'Tso' by fans has not ended that way. At the relatively young age of 30,
when perhaps many other midfielders of high acclaim reach the peak of their
powers, Tso, no longer plays professional football. When you take time to look
at how some players of Tso's generation, think Steven Pienaar and perhaps
Siyabonga Nomvethe are playing the best football of their careers, it begs the
question how this came to be.
 |
| Captain. All Time Record Goal scorer. Legend |
At
Orlando Pirates, Tso is a cult figure. He played in 170 games for the Sea
Robbers and is the club's all-time record goal scorer with 58 goals. I don't
think there can be any doubt that he played his best football in the black and
white of Pirates. Sadly for football, it was all before he turned 25. From very
early on in his career though, Tso was labelled as an age cheat in some
corners, and looking at how the rest of his career panned out, it's possible to
believe such. He moved to Danish club Aalborg in 2007 where he only featured in
5 games for the club before returning home after only one season in 2008. By
the time he was playing for Mamelodi Sundowns, he looked like a player who was
passed it. Sure, his time in Denmark was plagued by illness which hampered his
chances of making it big over there, but was his time out of the game such an
impediment that he would return a totally different player?
 |
| European Expedition: In the colours of AAlborg BK. |
After
his return from Europe, Vilakazi only played in 50 professional games between
2008 and 2012. A period troubled with indiscipline on his part and inconsistency
in his performances. For my mind, it would seem to suggest that he had been
caught out. He just didn't perform like a man in his twenties. I think it is
quite peculiar that a precocious talent such as Vilakazi would earn the last of
his 31 caps for Bafana Bafana at age 25 His performances from the time he was
25, on official records, didn't improve with age and experience up until the
time of retirement.
 |
| It just wasn't the same |
The
last club he played for, Black Leopards did release him from his contract
because he was found to have an unspecified medical condition. It may be that
this is the same condition that dogged him in Denmark and that it did adversely
affect his performances on the pitch and it may well be a valid reason for his
retirement. But I'm always going to wonder if his "30 year old” legs gave
in and couldn't carry him any longer.
Perhaps
Benedict Vilakazi was one of the lucky ones who got to play professional
football at all. Few get to play at the levels he did and up until the age that
he did. Other tremendously talented footballers like Patrick Mbuthu, Thabiso “Skapie”
Malatsi and Junior Khanye, to name a few, didn’t accomplish half of what Tso achieved
in his career. To be quite honest though, I cannot be sure if the story of
Benedict Vilakazi is one of an age cheat who lived the high life but was
eventually out or a supremely gifted magician who failed in reaching the
heights that he ought to or indeed half fulfilled his potential.
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