TS Galaxy star Dženan Zajmović has explained how he was lured to the Premier Soccer League unexpectedly this season.
Zajmović, 30, has been one of the standout players in the league in what’s been an impressive debut season with the Rockets.
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The towering forward has directly contributed to 13 goals in 22 games in all competitions, featuring as a 10 and out-and-out nine on some occasions.
He was signed just before the start of the 2024/25 season after the pre-season games against FC Augburg and Young Africans in Mpumalanga by then head coach Sead Ramovic and quickly needed to get up to speed – and since then, he’s impressed.
“To be honest, I didn’t know Sead, and he also didn’t know me. But the two assistants, Mustafa and Adnan,” Zajmović tells iDiski Times.
“Adnan Beganovic is now the head coach and then there was Mustafa Kodro, he was my assistant coach at Velez Mostar, I played there for a season and a half. Adnan, was the assistant coach way back at Travnik, I was like 18 years old.
“Beganovic, we didn’t see each other for 10 or 11 years without contact, but he still knew me from back then and he said good things about me.
“Mustafa too, he said amazing things to Sead who was impressed and then he showed my videos to Mr Tim Sukazi. So, he’s the Chairman who decides, he took the final decision, that’s how it went.”
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The Bosnian-Belgian forward recalls when contact was first made and while he knew things about South Africa, his family were a bit more reluctant, not knowing much about the country, given he’s spent his entire career in Europe and briefly in Asia with Sogdiana Jizzakh.
“To be totally honest. It was maybe 11 or 12 at night when they called me, you know, and I spoke with them for 20 minutes, half an hour,” he explained.
“I know a lot about South Africa, about Nelson Mandela, I’ve read a lot of things, you know. But I went to hallway for the call and then came back inside.
“I said to my wife and to my mom, she was also there. I told them they were calling me to play South Africa. They were just laughing, you know like haha, like I wasn’t being serious.
“Then I was the one, I took initiative, and I was explaining them like, South Africa is not what you guys think it is.
“And then I showed some videos, I knew Galaxy were based in Johannesburg, but I showed them videos of Cape Town, the stadiums, that was my tactic. It didn’t work immediately; it was two or three days before they came around.
“But Sead kept pushing, kept on calling saying you have to come, you have to come, to be honest it was late, 1 September.
“And when a club doesn’t come from July, August and you’re still waiting, you have to take what you can take. I knew both assistant coaches, so I was like – why not?”
Zajmović has only been outscored by Iqraam Rayners (9) and current top scorer Lucas Ribeiro Costa in the league this season, who has 13 goals.
