Deon Hotto: Orlando Pirates ready for hectic schedule

Having spent part of their pre-season in Spain as they look to compete on the domestic and continental front, Pirates will be hoping to avoid another early exit from the Champions League.

According to Hotto, the primary goal is to reach the group stages, and their Spanish escapade thoroughly prepared them for this competition.

"Yeah, yeah, for sure you could see the games we played now in Spain also. After two days we were playing a game because that's gonna require the same amount of energy when we come back here now because we'll be playing a league game, after a league game, we'll be travelling to Africa, come back again after two, three days then play maybe a Nedbank game. So, the coach was trying to force us to play a good amount of minutes," Hotto said.

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Meanwhile, Hotto says he was inspired by the life story of Kaizer Chiefs supremo Kaizer Motaung, and decided to do something special back home in Swakopmund, Namibia.

During the off-season, the Brave Warriors stalwart officially launched the Deon Hotto Foundation and pledged R2 million towards building a sports stadium in his hometown, with Motaung’s forming Chiefs upon his return from the US in 1970 the main inspiration for his own project.

"What I'm doing back home is actually something that I got from the big man, Doctor Kaizer Motaung, I've read his story, he was playing in the state when he came back, he started his small team Kaizer Eleven,” he added.

“So, for me it's all about trying to give back to my community. His story inspired me actually so that's what I wanna do also."