Thembinkosi Lorch would have played at the Soweto derby on Saturday had Kaizer Chiefs been granted their wish to bring him on board from Mamelodi Sundowns.
Lorch has instead winged his way to Wydad Casablanca on loan to the Moroccan giants where he has reunited with his former Sundowns and Orlando Pirates coach Rulani Mokwena.
Had Chiefs been granted their wish, Lorch would have joined the list of Kaizer “Chincha Guluva” Motaung, Donald “Ace” Khuse, Marks “Go Man Go” Maponyane, Marc “Blond Bomber” Batchelor and Pollen “Trompies” Ndlanya, who are among players who had the rare privilege of playing for either side of the Soweto divide.
He would also have followed in the footsteps of Khuse, who belongs in the elite category of distinguished players who donned the colours of Chiefs, Pirates and Sundowns with distinction.
May the generation of young guns like Mofokeng and Nkota (Pirates) and Shabalala and Vilakazi (Chiefs) escape the flash in the pan phenomenon and keep their eyes on the ball.
Best of the rest
Lorch hopes the reunion with Mokwena will revive his career that somewhat veered off the rails after he became the darling of The Ghost during his years with the Buccaneers. His star shone brightest in 2019 when he was the best of the rest. His terrific toil earned him the Premier Soccer League Footballer of the Season and the Player’s Player of the Season accolades.
One of the indelible memories of Bafana Bafana was when a Lorch strike stunned a boisterous capacity crowd inside Cairo Stadium into silence with a solitary goal that crashed Egypt in the last 16 of the Afcon 2019 in their own backyard.
One of the highlights of claiming that famous scalp was how Sifiso Hlanti turned Mohamed Salah into Mo Salad and kept the Egyptian king quieter than a church mouse. The Egyptians were devastated. Salah was gutted.
But the night belonged to Lorch. His 85th minute strike did not only send the holders packing from their home tournament, it secured Stuart Baxter’s Bafana an Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinal spot and erased three woeful group game performances.
The year belonged to Lorch. He delivered a crisp curler past Bruce Bvuma which capped a top-drawer performance in the 2-1 defeat of Chiefs in the Carling Black Label Soweto derby. Everyone agreed that jersey No 3 is a star.
He so hit the high notes that in the intervening years the nation bobbed to the beat of a Kabza De Small and DJ Maphorisa hit titled Lorch (udlala kamnandi).
Unsavoury, off-the-field antics
Then he stopped kicking and started punching. His unsavoury off-the-field antics hogged the headlines more than his amazing artistry on the turf. It got him in trouble with the law and for his own goal, Lorch escaped being locked in jail by the skin of his teeth.
There is a worrying pattern of players who performed far better than their peers the previous season failing to maintain the same level of performance in successive campaigns. Not exactly one-season wonders, especially among those who bag the biggest prize at the end of the campaign.
Percy Tau remains the only player in recent years who, after amassing the prized accolades, escaped the one-season wonder woes.
The Lion of Judah went on to bigger and better things when Brighton & Hove Albion paid a South African record-shattering transfer fee north of R50m to bring him to the English Premier League in 2018.
After making a clean sweep of Footballer of the Season, Players’ Player of the Season, Goalkeeper of the Season and Nedbank Cup Player of the Tournament honours in 2013, Itumeleng Khune managed to sustain his showings while maintaining his position as the No 1 gloveman for club and country.
The baton now belongs to Ronwen Williams, who stars as the best goalminder for Sundowns and South Africa, and rules the roost in Africa.
May the generation of young guns like Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota (Pirates) and Mduduzi Shabalala and Mfundo Vilakazi (Chiefs) who were on show in what was dubbed the “Youth Derby” yesterday, escape the flash in the pan phenomenon and keep their eyes on the ball.
And may Lorch be a good addition to Mokwena’s mission to awaken Wydad.
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