Delron Buckley finally landed in South Africa on Tuesday morning, his mind firmly set on revenge.
To explain the incredible rise of Buckley in 2004, one only has to go back to the African Nations Cup in Tunisia in January when Bafana Bafana were thumped 4-0 by Nigeria in Monastir.
The winger's confidence was at an all-time low. At his Bundesliga club, VFL Bochum, he could barely get a look in.
And in Tunisia, Bafana's chances of qualifying for the quarterfinals had been all but sunk by the Super Eagles.
"It was terrible," recalled Buckley at training on Tuesday, ahead of Wednesday's Nelson Mandela Challenge against those very same Nigerians.
"It's a tournament I want to forget."
A career lifeline came in the off-season in the form of newly promoted Arminia Bielefeld. Buckley was finally guaranteed first team football, and boy has he excelled.
Ten league goals this season from the left wing have put him top of the Bundesliga scoring charts, surprising even the man himself.
"I did not expect this," said Buckley.
"But the coach Uwe Rapolder is fully behind me and the fans love me."
Understandably, but now Buckley must start winning Bafana fans over, and there is no better place to begin than on Wednesday evening against Nigeria.
For all his form in Germany, he has not excelled for Bafana for a while now, and was even dropped from the last World Cup qualifier against Uganda.
His last goal for Bafana came against Burundi in an African Nations Cup qualifier over two years ago.
"If I carry on the way I am playing, I should score," said a confident Buckley.
"We want revenge for what they did to us in Tunisia."
Certainly this is a Bafana side that should have the quality to give Nigeria far more of a game than in Monastir.
It is perhaps ironic, in fact, that for what is ostensibly a friendly, Bafana coach Stuart Baxter has potentially his strongest squad of his short reign.
Quinton Fortune, Sibusiso Zuma, Siyabonga Nomvete and Elrio van Heerden all also arrived on Tuesday, to add to a squad that already reunites the Bafana strike force of Benni McCarthy and Shaun Bartlett.
Have Bafana attackers, one wonders, ever been in the club form that Buckley, Bartlett and McCarthy are at the moment? That should, surely, at least, be worth the goal that Bafana have never managed against Nigeria.
Buckley puts his goal spree this season partly down to the fact that the coach has encouraged him just to stay forward.
"Hopefully Bradley Carnell can do all the defending on Wednesday night," joked Buckley. And that will do the Bafana faithful just fine, if Buckley does the scoring at the other end too.