Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro has broken his silence on Jomo Sono’s comments about Patrick Maswanganyi after the club legend insisted fans or neutrals shouldn’t compare an elephant to an ant.
With Maswanganyi often impressing the Happy People with his skills and trickery, and also using Sono’s trick of standing on the ball, there have been comparisons between the club’s former number 10 and Tito.
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However, Sono was crystal clear in his assessment, insisting he was in a different class than Maswanganyi. Riveiro has now for the first time addressed the topic, saying Maswanganyi was not affected by the comments and always wants to step up on the field of play.
“Tito loves to play football,” he told Robert Marawa when asked about the Sono comments.
“Tito is a different animal when he’s on the field. It’s where he can express himself and show the best of himself.
“When you have players like him, who always want to be on the ball, which for me is something to highlight because it doesn’t matter what happens on the field – if we need a goal if we need two, we are losing a final, he’s one of the players who always want the ball.
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“That’s why sometimes it’s also in the tough side of the game, when we think about he’s losing the ball or he’s not losing the ball, they are kicking him or not, he’s diving or not diving, it’s that kind of stuff, it’s because he always want that responsibility.
“And in that period that you mentioned before [around Jomo’s comments], it was exactly the same, so that makes me feel that he feels the support already without even talking about it.
“But he’s a boy who just wants to be on the field and play football.”
