Former Orlando Pirates forward Lehlohonolo Majoro says Yanela Mbuthuma’s relationship with the club’s fans reminds him of the time Thamsanqa Gabuza also had a run-in with the club’s faithful.
Mbuthuma, 24, has endured a tough time with the Ghost faithful with a drought of goals from last season into the start of the current campaign. He has however provided two assists and scored two goals in Pirates’ last two matches in the MTN8 and in the Betway Premiership respectively.
He has also been named in coach Pitso Mosimane’s preliminary squad for the upcoming 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Guinea and Eritrea.
‘Major’ spoke to iDiski Times journalist Lethabo Kganyago in edition 271 of the newspaper where he made comparisons with Gabuza who also endured some tough times with the fans during his spell with Pirates.
Majoro said Mbuthuma despite the lack of goals is a hard worker, and a team player adding that the dry spell just like Gabuza’s will end.
“Look, I knew Mbuthuma from Richards Bay,” Majoro told iDiski Times.
“Even when Luvuyo Memela used to play for them, I used to tell him I like the energy of that boy. I like the way he fights because, in football, at some point you need to go the extra mile by fighting. You can’t always play clean, and each and every player has their style of play.
‘His style of play is about exerting effort, and he gets rewarded most of the time when he fights like that. It’s just unfortunate that the Orlando Pirates supporters would want to see a striker being the one who is always at the end of that final pass.
“They wouldn’t see the runs that he makes, the effort that he puts in order to make sure that the team regains the ball quickly from the opponent so that they can start their own attack. Those are the things that coaches look at. Those are the things that football requires. You can’t always be a footballer who shows up only when their team is in possession.
‘Only [Lionel] Messi can do that in this football generation, as many coaches have said, so I believe his time will come when he’s going to score, and everyone will forget about this thing. We had a colleague in [Thamsanqa] Gabuza, where they were on his case the same way that they are on Mbuthuma.
“I was there; I know how it feels, and I played in that position. Even myself, at some point, there were supporters that were on my case if I didn’t score. I know the feeling, and I believe that Mbuthuma doesn’t go into the field of play and say, ‘Today I’m going to miss’.”
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