From Milford to Pirates Hero: Sigomoshe’s Dream Debut Wins Over Ouaddou
Bulelani Sigomoshe wasn’t supposed to be the story. Then he walked out in an Orlando Pirates shirt and wrote his own.
With Kamogelo Sebelebele sidelined, the new signing from Milford FC was handed his debut at right-back against TS Galaxy on Tuesday. He played more than an hour and set up a goal in the 3-0 win. Not a bad first night.
Pirates coach, Abdeslam Ouaddou couldn’t stop praising him.
“When he came out I just congratulated him for the time he spent on the pitch,” the coach said.
“He is a player with fantastic mentality, for me. If I can have many players like that to work with, I will be the happiest coach.”
While his chance came after Sebelebele’s injury against Mamelodi Sundowns, Ouaddous insists his selection wasn’t luck. It was a just reward.
“He has a fantastic mentality, and very professional, very respectful. He’s worked very hard in training, so we wanted to give him the opportunity to play.
“We had other options, we could have gone for another choice, but I wanted to reward him for the work he’s done in training,” Ouaddou explained
The step up from Milford hasn’t been easy for the 26-year-old right back.
“It’s not easy to adapt, you can ask him. He was just shocked by the intensity of training, he’s never seen this,” Ouaddou revealed. “But I just told him it’s the high level, and if he continues to work like this, he will be able to play 90 minutes.”
There’s still a lesson in it for for Sigomoshe. “The most important thing in his position is repeating high-intensity effort and giving his body the opportunity to recover quickly. It’s the challenge. I want to congratulate him, he was good.”
The timing couldn’t be better. Sebelebele, hurt in the MTN8 final, is still being assessed by the medical team, and he will miss the Champions League fixture.
“I still hope it’s not so bad, but we will have some more news soon,” Ouaddou said. “For the Champions League, definitely I can’t use him, but we will see for the next games.”
Pirates await the verdict on Sebelebele. Meanwhile, Sigomoshe has handed Ouaddou a very welcome option on the right wingback position.
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