JOHANNESBURG - Jabu Maluleke shrugs his shoulders and lowers his voice. Then he responds to the question as to whether he thinks he gets the credit and attention he so richly deserves.
“I feel I should be given more respect than I get. But I don’t have any regrets on the choices I’ve made, whether it be in my personal life or professional career. I have a job to do at Polokwane City. I am humbled and honoured by the people who recognise me, though,” Maluleke, pictured, said.
The 34-year-old midfielder does a lot of good work on the field, dictating play with his silky touches and conducting the Rise and Shine orchestra that has found its tune under coach Luc Eymael.
Maluleke is also something of a free-kick specialist, bending the ball at will. But the Rise and Shine captain still goes under the radar because he has never played for a “sexy” team since he started at Black Leopards before going to SuperSport United, then returning to Limpopo to turn out for Polokwane.
“At one point, people not recognising my contribution to the game seriously affected me. But I told myself that I needed to let it go and focus on the future because it affected my game. I asked myself what it is that I needed to do for people to appreciate me. Fortunately, I quickly snapped out of that. If I dwell too much on that, I wouldn’t be able to enjoy football which would affect my game because the happier I am, the better I play.”
Maluleke is clearly happy because he has starred for Rise and Shine, helping them finish the first half of the season in the top eight. Polokwane are still there, higher than Orlando Pirates who they visit at Orlando Stadium tomorrow. It will be coach Kjell Jovrenet’s first match in charge of the Buccaneers after he received his work permit. The Swedish coach will be assisted by Harold “Jazzy Queen” Legodi and Benson Mhlongo.
“We were shocked when we were playing our last game of the year against SuperSport and we saw that we were in the top four,” Maluleke said. “We didn’t think we could be there. We were just collecting points but not looking at where we were. And then all of a sudden we were in the top eight. That motivated us to say that we should aim to finish there now. We realised that we can do better than what we did in the first half of the season.”
The Limpopo side will find it hard to keep that top eight place until the end of the season as this could be the most tightly-contested season in the PSL-era. For Polokwane to achieve a top eight finish, they will need their talisman Maluleke to be at his best. The midfielder is maturing like fine wine.
“People tend to judge you based on your age in South African football, saying that you are done,” Maluleke said.
“But what keeps me going are the wordsof Zlatan Ibrahimovich, when he told people that he isn’t finished just yet and there is more to come.
“I feel like that too. This is the beginning.”