Brian ‘Spiderman’ Baloyi says a new Spiderman or Legs of Thunder is busy baking in his oven and should be ready in the coming five years to set the football scene ablaze.
The legendary Alex goalkeeper who played for Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns including a stint in Bafana Bafana colours was speaking at a press conference in Sandton where one of the world’s foremost football leagues, LaLiga was announcing its partnership with Durban-based Hollywoodbets for sports betting and the development of grassroots football.
“I am silently cooking my new Spiderman that should hit the football road in about five years’ time,” said Baloyi. “It could be a Spiderman or even Legs of Thunder. I am busy on one of my football projects together with Jerry Skhosana and we’re both confident something good will emerge from that oven.”
Skhosana is a former sharpshooter for Orlando Pirates and the man who used to put arch-rivals, the Soweto Glamour Boys, to the sword with his lethal foot and also earned the Buccaneers their one and only Caf star of the continental Champions League back in 1995.
But others believe Baloyi should stop chasing the proverbial wild goose and look no further than Katlego Banele Mapela of Alex Royal Tigers SC, who is already being touted as the new Spiderman who is eager to wrestle that legacy from the retired and ageing Baloyi.
The new ‘Spiderman’ who hails from Booysens west of the Johannesburg CBD has been the pick of the Tigers as he has on many occasions kept his team in the game week-in week-out with his brilliant saves.
Katlego (15), cut his teeth in football at the tender age of nine while keeping for Qhakaza FC in Orlando East, Soweto, before moving to the Football Academy Plus in Bryanston and ultimately, Transition FC in Sandton in 2017.
Transition FC has a partnership with Alex Royal Tigers 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.
Besides their goalkeeping heroics, Baloyi and Katlego have another thing in common – Baloyi used to be the keeper at Sundowns while Katlego is an avid fan of Masandawana. “I dream of being a big name like my Spiderman namesake. I often 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.”
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