Orlando Pirates striker Kermit Erasmus has discussed his famous celebration in front of Mamelodi Sundowns fans after scoring against his former club in the MTN8.
Erasmus completed a Deadline Day move from Masandawana to the Buccaneers and immediately faced his former side on his first game after his return to Orlando Stadium.
It was a 0-0 at home in the MTN8 semi-final first leg, while Pirates beat Sundowns 3-0 at Peter Mokaba Stadium three weeks later, with Erasmus scoring the opener after just eight minutes.
He was then seen celebrating in front of Sundowns fans, with his shirt off and has now explained what lead to the famous picture.
“My initial thought was to turn my shirt back to front, [I had switched it] to honour my dad being a Pirates fan,” he told Pirates’ media team.
“I managed to do that [turn the shirt] and all my teammates were surrounding me, celebrating, supporters were losing their minds.
“As I walk back to the centre I couldn’t reverse my shirt back because it was too tight from the sweat that I’ve had. And I’m fighting with myself, trying to reverse my shirt back, walking to the half-way line and the referee is trying to restart the game.
“He sends me out the field and obviously that frustrated me because I thought for what, why I’m being sent out the field. My initial thought was to play with my shirt back to front until I get a chance to swop it.
“He sends me out the field, then I take off my shirt, because obviously I had to put it on the right way. As I looked across the stadium, across the field, I almost had a moment of dejavu because it wasn’t planned with what I did – waving my hands up and down in front of the Sundowns supporters.
“It was only because I saw the Pirates fans were still losing their minds on 90% of the stadium, because only the section behind was were the opposition section was.
“So me waving my hands was for our supporters to make a noise because majority was us. So when the noise started happening our level of intensity rose and then we started playing with more hunger and desire.
“But as soon as I jumped into the field again, the referee allowed me in – you know the pressure you get when you’re about to land, or when you’re flying, the cabin pressure you have – that’s the feeling I had from just the sound and the noise that the fans were making.”
Overall, Erasmus has featured in 14 games for Pirates, scoring twice while setting up a further four goals. However, over the last four games he has only featured in 31 minutes after two substitute appearances, falling somewhat behind Terrence Dzvukamanja in the pecking order.
