Raymond Mdaka’s great admiration for Mbekezeli Mbokazi’s talent

Mbokazi is one of the 36 players in Amajita’s camp preparing for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) U20 tournament in Côte D’Ivoire at the end of next month. 

Mbokazi has been a revelation in the Pirates senior team squad, having played the last four matches for the club and getting two man of the match awards. 

Mdaka says they were already impressed by Mbokazi during the COSAFA U20 tournament in Mozambique last year.

"We already saw the talent, you know when we were in Mozambique. We had Mbokazi since the beginning of our camps. The first camp that we had which was a preparatory camp when we went to Lesotho, we know the kind of player he is,” Mdaka said.

“Not him only, there are a number of players that you look in to say and believe that we have these players in the country who can be able to help us."

READ: Hugo Broos credits the win over Lesotho to lessons from the AFCON

Mbokazi, playing alongside Kaizer Chiefs youth defender Gopolang Taunyane, marshalled the Amajita defence, which kept clean sheets throughout the tournament on its way to winning the COSAFA title in Mozambique.

Mdaka has more on what makes the 19-year-old special and the kind of a player he is.

"Mbokazi, obviously, we didn't want to scatter our things and look at a lot of things because he is still upcoming, when we played in Mozambique, we played him as a left centre-back, we played him as a left back and those are the areas where we feel for the team, he's covering a lot of for us,” he added.

“So, we wouldn't think of any other thing but the defensive role that he's playing is giving us the strength to say we are covered at the back. Personally, he's a quiet player but he's a very, very aggressive player.

“He is one player who believes in winning without talking, without anything but the work rate you can see the commitment in the field of play is something that can take him beyond where he is as a player."