Orlando Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou has tipped defender Lebone Seema for a “great future”, praising the centre-back’s continued development.
The 23-year-old made the move from TS Galaxy to the Buccaneers last season and wasted little time establishing himself as a key figure in the team.
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His impressive performances throughout the campaign earned him the 2025/26 Betway Premiership Defender of the Season award after he played a key role in helping Pirates keep several clean sheets.
Ouaddou believes Seema has made significant progress, particularly in his ability to read different match situations and understand when to defend cleanly and when to adopt a more physical approach. He feels these are qualities the defender lacked when he first arrived at the club.
“Look, Seema did really a lot of work with seriousness, with professionalism because if you want to get to the high level, first of all, you need to work, daily work,” said Ouaddou.
“You need to listen; to be coachable and he is a fantastic boy. He accepts sometimes to be criticised, he listens and he goes forward.
“I remember last season against Golden Arrows. I tried to bring some efficiency on him because I always tell him that, of course, there is the beautiful game. It is important to keep this quality, to find the players between the lines, to play short, to play long, to be beautiful. Okay? But the high level sometimes asks you to be rough, to be efficient.
“Sometimes it is not shape, if you have to put the ball sometimes in the stand because you want to keep the clean sheet, it is part of your job. And I call this the emergency situation.
“We cannot all the time as defenders want to play clean. So, he did a lot of improvements. He is somebody now who is able to play clean football, and he is able to be sometimes rough, rough, hard, on the ball. Not on the ankle of the opponent. I don’t teach this to my players.
“So, you can see that step by step he became a real high-level defender. And I am sure there is room to be even better,” he added.
“And I predict a great, great, great future for him if he continues to work, if he continues to listen in his career.”