Khuzwayo: Brilliant in football as well as in life

Brilliant Khuzwayo retired from professsional football without making his debut for Orlando Pirates, who he joined at the beginning of last season.

In spite of this misfortune, the Umlazi-born goalkeeper doesn’t have any regrets in life.

The 29-year-old burst onto the scene in 2010 while donning the colours of AmaZulu. From then on, Khuzwayo never looked back as he went on to play for Kaizer Chiefs and after a long injury lay-off he was snatched up by their Soweto rivals, Pirates.

He also featured in three games for Bafana Bafana and has several caps for the Under-23 national team.

“Yes, I am disappointed (that I retired without playing a single game for Pirates), but I have to accept the reality. I have accepted that my success will not only be in a performance on the football field. I needed to be strong mentally because if you don’t have that then you won’t make it in life,” Khuzwayo commented on the sidelines of the launch of the eThekwini Games during this past week.

At the start of last season, Khuzwayo joined the Buccaneers from Amakhosi. His contract expired with Chiefs and he opted not to renew his stay them. There were expectations when Khuzwayo penned the deal with the Sea Robbers after holding the number one spot brilliantly when Itumeleng Khune was out of action.

“Life will hurt you at times and we can’t run away from that but the most important thing is how you recover from your setbacks. I can’t change the fact that I didn’t play a single match for Pirates. I have to accept it and keep going. I’m a believer,” he added.

Khuzwayo is set to pocket millions from the PSL's insurance scheme because he was forced to retire from football because of an ankle injury. Just when cleared to play, the niggle recurred and eventually the specialists confirmed that it had developed into arthritis. It is at this point that the promising goalkeeper took the big decision to hang up his boots.

“I always believe that everything is possible in life. I want people to remember me for how good I was as a human being; a good respecting person. I played football and then thereafter I was just a normal human being,” he said.

He has now returned to Durban and is considering his next move. "I’m brilliantly happy about where I am,” the player named Brilliant quipped on Wednesday, as the ambassador of the eThekwini Games.

“I don’t leave with regrets, I played for two giants in Gauteng and I also played for another giant in AmaZulu. What else can I ask for?”