By: Sekonyela Qaitsane
Maseru – The newly crowned Vodacom Premier League Player of the Year, Jerry Kamela, has heaped praise on the Orlando Pirates and Bafana Bafana legend Teboho Moloi for the role he has played in resurrecting his career.
Kamela, who also bagged the midfielder of the season award at the VPL awards last weekend, labeled Moloi a ‘special guy’, citing that he gave him a chance when everyone thought he was down and out by signing him during his tenure at Linare FC. Not only that, Kamela says Moloi also encouraged and convinced him that he still had a lot to offer to the game and that he should not give up on himself.
During that period, Kamela says, due to a lot of negativity, even he started doubting himself and had considered hanging up his boots, thinking it was time to call it a day. A major setback in his career, he said, has been career-threatening injuries. After being released by Lioli around 2018, Kamela found himself at Manonyane FC, where he says it was during that period that almost everyone wrote him off.
“However, I bounced back and came back stronger. Not to prove a point to anyone, but to do what I do best,” he said.
Kamela went on to play for Linare under the mentorship of Moloi. After the South African gaffer left the club, Kamela fell out of favour and left to rejoin Lioli for his second stint. This player of the season award is his second, having achieved the same success in 2016 playing for Lioli FC. By scooping both gongs, Kamela made a whopping combined sum of M24 000; M15 000 for payer of the season, and M9 000 for midfielder of the season award.
Giving a word of advice to the upcoming generation of footballers, Kamela said they should prioritize hard work and everything else will fall into place instead of focusing on money from the onset. Such mentality, he said, could prove to be dangerous, as such people forget to work hard as they focus all their attention on results and miss important aspects of life.