Modiba proving his worth at Sundowns

Being in a Mamelodi Sundowns side that is synonymous with destroying players’ careers – at least as far as perception on the street is concerned – Aubrey Modiba is choosing not to be another statistic on the long list of players who joined the Chloorkop-based outfit with much expectation but ended up on the sidelines such as Jeremy Brockie, Aubrey Ngoma and George Lebese, just to name a few.

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Modiba was chased by Sundowns for at least three seasons and SuperSport kept fending them off and thanks to the effect that Covid-19 has on the economy, Downs waved their fat cheque and got their way with Modiba as Matsatsantsa could not resist the money offered by Sundowns, given their financial stance at the time.

However, Modiba did not hit the ground running as he would have been expected but he only managed 10 games in all of Sundowns’ 30 games this season. As they say, you’re as good as your last game, and Modiba’s last performance is a testament to that.

The 25-year-old displayed his best performance in a Sundowns jersey in what was only his second 90 minutes match when Downs beat Chippa United 2-1 on Monday afternoon. He was named the DStv Premiership Man-of-the-Match for his assist and winning a penalty. This has rubbed his coach, Manqoba Mngqithi, up the right way.

“One is encouraged by the performance of Aubrey, he is showing that he is coming off age,” said Mngqithi, who wished he could have also played captain Hlompho Kekana and Sibusiso Vilakazi.

“It was a bit unfortunate for “Vila” and the skipper to not get chances because the truth of the matter is that they gave good performances and that is why they were in the 18-man squad.

“One is just encouraged that we have won another critical match at a critical time of the season because these away matches, when there is a big match coming, it is difficult for players to focus on the match because they know they’ve got a Pirates game after that,” Mngqithi said.

The Brazilians are now gearing up for a contest with Orlando Pirates in the Nedbank Cup quarterfinal this Thursday.