Former Orlando Pirates winger Patrick Maswanganyi has broken his silence on his exit from the club, explaining he felt he needed to leave to be at peace, with his family also suffering during his time in South Africa.
Maswanganyi, 28, left the Buccaneers very abruptly after starting the season with Pirates, featuring in the club’s first four games.
However, he opted for a move to Bahraini side Al Khaldiya, saying he wasn’t feeling like himself when playing for the Sea Robbers.
“I’ve always asked the chairman for me to leave the club because I felt like it was the right moment for me to leave, and we spoke about it for a very long time about me leaving the club,” he said during a Q&A with the South African Football Journalists Association (SAFJA).
“And I felt that was going to help me in terms of me being myself and also me being able to regain my confidence, because sometimes I would feel really down and I always had to explain to them I wish to play for another team.
“Going to Bahrain that was the only team that I had that I felt it was great and it was a better opportunity for me to go there.
“I needed to be in a space where I felt I could be myself again and also I needed peace, I was looking for peace in which way when I was in South Africa I couldn’t have but for me I needed peace, that’s why I went there.”
‘I needed to be far away from the country’
Maswanganyi went on to clarify that especially his family were affected by comments on social media, and he felt leaving the country would free him from the constant scrutiny and back pressure he felt while playing in South Africa.
“Everyone knows that I was under a lot of pressure, not really pressure but my family was suffering from the comments that I was getting from the [social] media I’d say,” he added.
“So they would see those kind of things and they wanted me to quit football. But for me it was something whereby I would understand because I’m a football player, these things happen. But for them it was really tough for them.
“I had to make sure that my family is protected from all those things. I just felt like that if I would move far away from the country things would get better in terms of their [mental] health.
“And also myself to be in a space whereby I stopped thinking a lot, because I had a lot of thoughts if I’m good or bad but when it comes to family it’s something where I need to make sure that I protect and I make decisions that help me and also my family to feel good and I also feel good.”