Until next season

Firstly, congratulations to Thulani Serero for bagging four awards including the prestigious Footballer of the Year award in last night’s ABSA Premiership Awards ceremony at Gold Reef City.

I was honestly disappointed that Andile Jali didn’t win a PSL award, though he celebrated lifting the trophy with his team mates on the stage, reality is something one can ignore, can just imagine how he must felt hours after the awards.

So if it is not about contribution then what is it about? What is the panel basing their decisions upon? Just brilliance or form?

1st round:

Andile Jali and Knowledge Musona were the only two players making headlines during the first half of the season so much that one of the two was tipped to claim the Footballer of the year award…

2nd Round:

When the Mapetla-born Serero decided to raise the bar by scoring vital goals and enjoying fine form, Musona’s season took a knock when he injured his leg, he almost never fully caught on until the last few games of the league, average performances by Andile Jali resulted in Orlando Pirates dropping crucial points against Ajax Cape Town, Supersport United and Santos but was exceptional throughout. It was now Jali versus Serero.
In the end… No award.. How appalling.

Does the treble count for nothing? What’s the prize for winning the PSL title, MTN 8 and the Nedbank Cup?

This took me back to the 2006 Germany FIFA World Cup when Zinedine Zidane’s astounding performance against Brazil placed him in poll position to win the player of the tournament award, and he won it. To be honest, Andrea Pirlo had a terrific spell overall, helping Le Azzuri claim the world crown, but was voted “2nd best.” What more does one have to do?

I guess this is an worldwide pattern.

Anyway, it is not the nominees that vote but a selected few individuals who spend hours deciding on who wins. There must be some criteria they are using… Patrick Tingyemb won an award for the best goalkeeper, uhm Hans Vonk? Really now.

This is one man’s opinion, I feel Jali should have won the Player or Footballer of the year award but it wasn’t to be. To me, this implies that he didn’t do anything special the entire season, period! Yes, he got nominated unfortunately that’s not enough, especially after being so instrumental in the team and the league as a whole.

Until next season Andile, be proud and keep on working hard.