Polokwane City veteran striker Puleng Marema has disclosed why he never joined Kaizer Chiefs saying he was offered a bigger contract at City at the time.
Marema came through the development ranks at City, went on to be promoted to the first team that also won promotion to the big league in 2012. He has spent all his professional career at Rise and Shine playing over 300 games with close to 70 goals thus far having also been relegated with the team and coming back up.
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The 35-year-old has also captained the side and remains one of the vice captains to this day. He spoke to iDiski Times senior writer Matshelane Mamabolo in edition 250 of the newspaper where he spoke of a time when he was most wanted even by Amakhosi.
He revealed that though he might have harboured some regrets about not making the move to Naturena, a revised contract convinced him to stay in Limpopo.
“At first, yeah, I had a lot of regrets,” Marema told iDiksi Times.
“The reality is if you want to go to another team, it is obviously because of money. Football is about money. But there was a point when the chairman gave me the biggest contract that I could never refuse.
“That contract, at that time, I can probably say I’m sure there were some players at big teams that I was earning more than they were. So, there was no way for me to go to Chiefs when I was happy here at home in Polokwane. The move to another club would have been about money.”
Marema admitted that football is about winning silverware something his side hasn’t managed to do outside of lifting the first division trophy after gaining promotion. However, he added that it doesn’t make sense for him to win trophies and not have financial security after hanging up his boots.
“We all want to show something after football,” added the Zebediela born forward.
“But at the same time, it doesn’t help if I won 10 league trophies and the top eight cup, but then after football, I don’t have money. So, now I must show trophies while my kids are suffering? For me, it’s an achievement to win something, but I was thinking about the bigger picture.
“What will happen after? Because, say I went to Chiefs, and they offered me a three-year, anything could happen after that. It’s football; they could have said goodbye even before the end of the contract. And you know the kind of pressure at those big clubs. Would I still be around playing like I am now?”
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