Rulani Mokwena has praised Mamelodi Sundowns midfielder Andile Jali after he won the DStv Premiership December Player of the Month award.
Mokwena and Manqoba Mngqithi were also winners as they won their third successive Coach of the Month award.
Mokwena says Jali has been a picture of consistency this season, and says he is surprised the debate on Player of the Season hasn’t started yet, feeling Jali must be the front runner.
“Congratulations to AJ I think it’s well deserved, I think if you look at AJ and his importance to the team,” Mokwena told the club’s media department.
“Of course as I always say that the individual awards in football, mean very little if there is no recognition of the contribution of your teammates, including those that don’t play.
“But AJ has been phenomenal, his level of consistency, his ability to play from a psychological perspective with the same engagement and attachment to the game, even after very good performances has been exceptional.
“Giving performances where you are getting average rating of seven or eight out of 10 for every single match this season, of course, is probably the most difficult thing in football at the moment. But he needs to be given a lot of praise for the amount of hard work.
“The contributions of the medical department, the conditioning department can not be ignored because they have been fantastic for all the players.
“But having said that, what’s important is that we continue to work in this way. And if you continue to work in this way, then maybe the debate will start because I’m very surprised that with AJ’s performances with Mshishi’s consistency and performances, we haven’t started the debate of the Footballer of the Season, I’m very surprised.
“So hopefully now that AJ has won Footballer of the Month, and rightfully so, I’m not sure how many he’s won now already, one or two but that’s okay, the reflection on the performances cannot be based on those individual awards but based on Man of the Match that he’s already chalked up, the consistency in the performances, and then maybe with the media we can start the talk of is Andile Jali the footballer of the season so far?
“And I would be very surprised if we don’t start that talk yet.”
