Age 19;
Club AmaZulu;
Hometown KwaMakhutha; Durban
Johannesburg - Impressing former AmaZulu coach Steve Barker to hand him a professional contract with Usuthu and Thabo Senong to bring him to the national Under-20 set-up, was the easy part for Menzi Ndwandwe.
The hard part for the lanky striker was winning over his toughest critic - his mother.
She didn’t think anything good would come out of his football career, especially after she saw Menzi’s elder brothers, Sikhumbuzo and Sifiso, disappointed at African Wanderers where they couldn’t make much of a mark.
“There were times when I needed to pay some money to go somewhere with our local team and she would refuse,” Ndwandwe said. “I would beg her until I cried but she would say no until just before the day we had to go. She would eventually give in and I would get my way. She didn’t like football much at first because of what happened with my brothers. Seeing them disappointed like that hurt her. She didn’t want me to go through the same thing.
“Despite that, she was still supportive because she knew this is my life. When I signed for AmaZulu, she was over the moon.”
Ndwandwe earned a contract with Usuthu after impressing in the Durban Under-19 Tournament last year with KwaZulu-Natal Academy. His highlight of the tournament was scoring an audacious goal from the centre against Netherlands side PSV Eindhoven.
That and his instinct for goal, caught Barker’s eye. He was signed for AmaZulu’s first season in the first division. His time with the club has been surreal, especially the start of this season where he is competing for a place in the starting XI with veterans Siyabonga Nomvethe and Mabhuti Khenyeza.
These two strikers are part of an exclusive club of players who have scored 100 goals or more in the PSL. There are only six members, which also include Daniel Mudau, Tico-Tico Bucuane, Wilfred Mugeyi and Collins Mbesuma.
Nomvethe started his career with Abaqulusi, in KwaZulu-Natal, where Ndwandwe’s brothers couldn’t make the grade, the year the 19-year-old was born.
“I was in awe when I arrived for training and saw Nomvethe and Khenyeza,” Ndwandwe said. “I grew up watching them and looked up to them. I couldn’t believe they are my teammates.
“I have learned a lot from them because they have a lot of experience. I respect what they have done to maintain their career this long, I can only become a better person and a striker by being around them.”
Ndwandwe is around his peers in Rustenburg at this moment as part of the Amajita team playing in the Under-20 Cosafa Cup. They started their title defence in emphatic fashion by thrashing Lesotho 8-0. Ndwandwe came on from the bench to score the fifth goal in that drubbing.
He and this generation are looking to retain the trophy Shakes Mashaba’s team won in Lesotho three years ago.
Rivaldo Coetzee graduated from that group to become the youngest player to don the Bafana Bafana jersey, while Tebogo Moerane became an Olympian and Nhlakanipho Ntuli is now plying his trade in Europe. Ndwandwe met Ntuli briefly at AmaZulu when Nanana was training with the club to keep fit.
“That generation is an inspiration to us,” Ndwandwe said. “That this is a special group of players who will go far. Forget the starting XI, our bench is very strong.”