Alex’s Brian ‘Spiderman’ Baloyi has a challenger in Katlego Mapela of Royal Tigers
ALEXANDRA -– A new Spiderman is in the making at Alex Royal Tigers SC.
There is a new ‘Spiderman’ in town and he plays for Alex Royal Tigers SC and is eager to wrestle that legacy from the ageing Brian Baloyi.
He is Katlego Banele Mapela from Booysens and keeps his team in the game week in and week out with his brilliant heroics in-between the sticks.
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Katlego (13), a Grade 7 learner at Forest Hill Primary School, cut his teeth in football at the tender age of nine while goal minding at Qhakaza FC in Orlando East, Soweto before moving to the Football Academy Plus in Bryanston and ultimately Transition FC in Sandton last year.
Transition has a partnership with Alex Royal Tigers SC and this is how Katlego found himself playing in Alexandra. “I have played football since age nine and all the time I have been a keeper,” said the young man with big ambitions that include playing overseas one day.
“I love Manchester United but that does not mean I will not take offers from other teams. I will accept any offer from any club abroad. Playing overseas is my ultimate dream in football. Of course, I would like to go through the run of the mill and represent my country as well but my ambition is top sides in Europe.”
An avid fan of Sundowns locally, Katlego is the last born in a family of four children and his elder brother, Fezile, used to play soccer as well. His mother, Nosisa, is the breadwinner of the family since the death of his father, Aubrey, in 2016.
She runs a scholar transport company and also shares her son’s dreams of him being a professional footballer of note one day. “As my chauffeur,” he joked, “she never misses any games that I have to play. She drives me to all of the games and also supports me in all that I do.”
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Katlego dreams of being a big name like his Spiderman namesake, Baloyi, who played for Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns. “I sometimes watch his videos and marvel at his acrobatics and I then practise them over and over in the hope I will be like him one day.”
