Patosi reveals his dream to don Pirates jersey

The irony in that however is that Patosi excelled against the Buccaneers while turning out for Cape Town City because he subconsciously wished he was on the other side as he grew up an ardent supporter the Soweto giants.

READ: Cape Town City ready for PSL season restart

The 27-year-old who is currently out in Iran where he is on a loan deal with Foolad FC said this week that he would love to play for Bucs before hanging up his boots.

He told a South African Football Journalists Association (Safja) virtual media conference that while he is enjoying his stay in Iran and negotiating for a permanent deal, he wouldn’t mind coming back to South Africa especially to the country’s ‘big three’, who are Kaizer Chiefs, Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns.

“Yes, I would love to play for the big three, but I would more like to play for Pirates,” said Patosi. “The reason for that being that I grew up supporting Pirates and it would be a fulfilment of a dream for me to play for them,” said the Khayelitsha-born midfielder.

He also revealed how he initially didn’t see eye-to-eye with his former coach at City, Benni McCarthy.

“At the beginning I didn’t work well with him. I knew him from when he was an assistant coach at a team in Belgium when I was still playing there. So, when we me at City, I thought things would be fine. But on my side as well I thought (playing in) the PSL would be easy. I didn’t do as much, I didn’t work that much to give him that confidence that he can believe and trust in me to win games for him,” said Patosi.

He admitted that he wasn’t doing what he was supposed to and was spending a lot of time with friends away from training.

“I was doing my own things on the side because I had just come back from Belgium where I had been for seven years. I started to spend more time with friends than doing the work.

“I didn’t realise that he (McCarthy) was trying to help me become a better player. But at some point, I realised that and I spoke to him and Mr (John) Comitis (Cape Town City owner).  I realised that he wants the best out of me and that I was not in Cape Town for a holiday but to work and I couldn’t do whatever I wanted and expect to play.

“I started to do my job, worked hard. At the end we were both fine and worked together very well. We played two finals under him and for a new coach to achieve that is something great. He is a kind of coach who doesn’t care if you are a star or you are big player… he treats everyone in the dressing room the same. If you don’t do our job, he will tell you off.

“Off the field he is a cool guy and jokes around but once in the dressing room he changes.”

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