MATSHELANE MAMABOLO
COMMENT
DID they have to get it so right?
Did the judging panel for the various categories of the PSL end-of-season awards have to be so spot-on with their decisions?
One of the aspects that make football The Beautiful Game we love so much is its ability to divide opinions – well, at least for me.
There are few things as exciting as a debate among friends, colleagues or even family members on a football issue. The raw passion the different views invoke is just incredible, right? Ever been in the presence of soccer fans discussing who the best footballer is between Pele and Diego Maradona, or Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo?
It is for this reason, football’s ability to induce heated debate, that I am not sold on the VAR. But I digress.
On the PSL awards I believe there are unlikely to be passionate discussions this week with regards to the event that was held virtually on Sunday night. Previously a source of rigorous debates with two people seldom in agreement over the winner – particularly for the major Footballer of the Year award – this year’s awards are sure to be unanimously received.
Ronwen Williams walking off with the top award was expected – the Mamelodi Sundowns goalkeeper being the season’s standout performer and the PSL coaches being in agreement. And you can bet all soccer fans feel the same way too.
The Players’ Player of the Year award – often regarded as the most coveted of all accolades because it is conferred by one’s peers – is rarely debated and Orlando Pirates’ Patrick ‘Tito’ Maswanganyi has roundly been seen by most as a star performer this season.
I probably would throw a spanner in the works here though and ask if Tito was a better midfielder – he took home three awards – this year than Sundowns’ Teboho Mokoena. Many would no doubt argue that the Pirates man was influential in helping his club to winning two competitions as compared to Mokoena assisting the Brazilians to just the league title.
Whichever way you look at it though, this is not a glaring decision to induce a full-on heated debate. And it is the same with the rest of the other awards which saw Pirates’ Relebohile Mofokeng taking the Young Player of the Year award and the same for the Nedbank Cup in which Maswanganyi earned the Player of the Tournament prize.
The Goal of the Season can usually be a subjective award and while there would have been many who felt that long range strike by Sekhukhune United’s Asekho Tiwani from his own half was the best, the judges went with Thabiso Lebitso’s slick shot from the edge of the box in the Soweto derby. There’s likely to be some debate there, but not the kind to leave siblings or friends not talking to each other for days.
A pity really, because the off-season is going to be a little dull for lack of ‘opinion-dividing’ topics some of us had expected the PSL awards to induce.