Shalulile and Sundowns will miss Vilakazi, claims Mokwena

If you’re looking for a template of a brilliant striker in the Premier Soccer League, you look no further than Mamelodi Sundowns’ Peter Shalulile, who has banged in over 50 goals in two seasons for Masandawana.

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While “Sha Sha”, as the Namibian striker is affectinately known in football circles, gets all the credit and makes the headlines, his coach, Rulani Mokwena has revealed that Sibusiso Vilakazi, has had a huge influence on Shalulile’s performance even though he did not feature much for the club in the past two seasons.

Vilakazi left Sundowns last week and joined TS Galaxy where he looks to re-establish himself as a regular player.

“He is a former PSL Footballer of the Season, he is a multiple league winner and he won trophies with Bidvest Wits. We know the type of footballer that we lost and it is unfortunate that we got to that space where we could not guarantee him the game time that he deserves. He was a bit unfortunate with us with injuries but not a lot is said about “Vila” the human being,” said Mokwena.

“He is a person who has always looked to put the team first and has always been ready to be at service. Not a lot of people know that a lot of what you see from Peter Shalulile is from a lot of Vilakazi’s influence in the background. “Vila” has shown that to be a top player you need to be a good human being,” Mokwena added.

Galaxy struggled the whole of last season and survived the drop on the last day of the season. The club has since reinforced their squad and “Vila” is, without doubt, their marquee signing.

“Galaxy have received a player who knows how to win and he will add a lot in their change room in terms of mentoring and assisting the younger ones,” said Mokwena.

“We can only thank him for his relentless effort in trying to make us a better team and his efforts in assisting us to achieve what the club has achieved when he was here. We wish him the best of luck because he deserves to be happy and we cannot keep players who we cannot guarantee their happiness. He deserves to finish off his career on a high note and hopefully Galaxy can offer him that,” he added.