Makgalwa would love to emulate Ronaldo

“That one, he is my role model,” says the 20-year-old attacker.

“I love him, he scores goals, I like players who score goals. Even if he is playing at 2am I will wake up and watch him … only Cristiano. If he doesn’t score … eish … my heart!”

Makgalwa is making his own waves right now in the beautiful game, a stellar performance for a victorious Sundowns in last season’s MultiChoice Diski Challenge earning him the PSL’s Most Precious Find award and promotion this season to the Brazilians’ first team.

His statistics in the MDC certainly make impressive reading, with eight goals and 12 assists in 14 appearances numbers that surely even the great Ronaldo would be impressed with.

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His star performances even caught the eye of the national team selectors, and Makgalwa was part of the Amajita squad that played at the Fifa Under-20 World Cup in South Korea.

“For me, 2017 was my year,” says the man himself.

“If you check, I was selected to play at the Fifa Under-20 World Cup, even though I didn’t go to the (Under-20) Afcon. And also there was the success of winning the MultiChoice Diski Challenge and winning Player-of-the-Season there.

“For me, the MDC title was the only title left not in the Sundowns cabinet, so we said we have to make sure we go for it, and we did it. We even went to the Netherlands (with the MDC team) and played a tournament there and won it, so it was a good year.”

In South Korea, Amajita failed to win a match, but it was a quick learning curve for Makgalwa and his team-mates that will hopefully help them in the future.

“Eish, it was another level,” says Makgalwa.

“The tempo was so high, and you know the European and Asian sides are technically and tactically good, they just don’t lose the ball easily, they made us run for 90 minutes. I remember Japan held onto the ball for two consecutive minutes in our first game, even though we should have won that game. We missed a lot of chances.”

Now Makgalwa has the chance to fight for a place in the Sundowns first team, though at the moment he is recovering from a groin injury.

“For me, it is all about going there and working hard and proving to the coach that they didn’t choose me (for promotion) as a favour. So far, so good, even though I am still out injured. Training with (Khama) Billiat and Percy (Tau) and Mshishi (Themba Zwane) is really motivating, those are the guys to learn from.

“I have learned so much so far, coach Pitso (Mosimane) is obviously a good coach. It is a big step up for me from last season …. Sundowns have a good squad, and for me I am not going to just make up the numbers.

“He (Mosimane) is telling me to work hard, he doesn’t want lazy players.”

Makgalwa, meanwhile, believes there are more youngsters that will impress for Sundowns in this season’s MDC.

“Yes, there are good youngsters there.Last year the Sundowns Under-17 team won the Future Gauteng Championships and went to China and won the Gothia Cup. I think the same players that won the Gothia Cup will play MDC this year and they will do well.”