Orlando Pirates Dstv Diski Challenge head coach Joseph Makhanya named defender Mbekezeli Mbokazi the next youngster to make breakthrough into the senior side.
Pirates have been promoting youngsters from the DDC team in the past few seasons, with Relebohile Mofokeng and Mohau Nkota making waves in the senior side. Mofokeng made the breakthrough into the first team back in May 2023 against Royal AM and scored a goal on debut.
Since then, the 20-year-old never looked back as he sealed his place in the starting lineup of the Pirates senior side and became a key player. Mofokeng also received his Bafana Bafana call-up in June for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers against Nigeria and Zimbabwe, making his national debut against the Warriors.
Speaking with iDiskiTimes, Makhanya mentioned that Mbokazi is the next one to make a breakthrough into the senior side because he is a quality player. The former Pirates winger was also thankful to Jose Riveiro for giving the youngsters a chance and trusting them.
“The boy is quality hence our first team decided to promote him,” Duku-Duku told this publication.
“So, he is training with the first team on a full-time basis, again he is a player that we want to lose to the first team because that’s our job down here whereby we make sure players are ready and being prepared properly to play for our first team.
“You see how Rele is doing that side, you see how Nkota is doing that side, so we also want to produce defenders, we don’t only produce attackers, we’ve got defenders and midfielders.
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“We are happy with our senior coach with what he is doing because he is giving them a chance, he is trusting them meaning he is also trusting us with the work that we doing.”
