Sundowns’ Maema gives back to his Free State roots

Mamelodi Sundowns star midfielder Neo Maema has highlighted why giving back through the Neo Maema Foundation is something close to his heart.

While most PSL players were on holiday enjoying their off-season, Maema was in his hometown of Bloemfontein giving back to the community of Heideldal by conducting coaching clinics.

Maema comes from humble beginnings after graduating from former DStv Premiership side Bloemfontein Celtic’s reserves to playing first team football. He earned a big move to Sundowns in 2021 where has flourished for The Brazilians winning back-to-back league titles, the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup.

“Giving back is always about installing hope in the hearts of young people,” Maema said in an interview with Phakaaathi.

“They need to believe more in themselves and the path they are taking as footballers. They don’t only need to be inspired when we are away from them on TV but to also see us back in the community.

“This was more about installing hope to make sure they follow their dreams because not many of us who come from Bloemfontein get an opportunity to make it very big. If they can see me and how I pushed to get to this level, they will believe it’s possible.”

There’s a void in the City of Roses in terms of giving homegrown talent a chance to shine after Celtic’s PSL status was sold to Royal AM two years ago. Maema believes there’s more untapped talent that has the potential to follow in his footsteps and that of new PSL footballer of the season Teboho Mokoena who also hails from the Free State province.

Immense talent

“There’s immense talent in Bloemfontein and the Free State as a whole,” he said.

“There’s talent that can’t be wasted if they push themselves. When they see us doing such things for them, it will give them a bit of inspiration so that more players can come from the Free State because the goal is to see them represent the country and going abroad.

“To hear them speak so positive about me and how inspired they are. It’s things that I could have only imagined in my time as a youngster because there weren’t many professional footballers that did things like this for us so it was very hard for us.”