Having been crowned the country's best player last season, Teboho Mokoena had to dig deep to defy the odds and prove that he is no one-hit wonder. In this candid conversation courtesy of PUMA, the midfielder reveals the secret behind his incredible rise.
It shows the character of a player when he admits that he struggled with the intensity of the play at Mamelodi Sundowns upon his arrival – only to put in the work and rise head and shoulders above his peers.
That is exactly what the 26-year-old did in his first full season with the Brazilians where he propelled them to league glory with his tenacious work in the middle of the park:
Tebza, as he is lovingly known, shares three of his secrets to his success:
A Solid Pre-season:
I usually go to Dubai for holidays and of course I train because the weather is very hot and I think it helps me with my stamina, so I get my stamina quick and also in Africa, the temperatures are very high so going there works in my favour as we work in high temperature levels, so I think the degrees are like 45 a day and in Africa it is the same, so it prepares me for Africa.
Constant Introspection:
I was happy that I moved to Sundowns, and I gained a little bit of weight because I was excited, so I saw and I knew what I must work on, and also obviously the stats, I was watching everything. I worked with the people who control the GPS, and I compared my stats with what I had at SuperSport, and I could see what the difference was, and I had to work on. I thought that things were gonna be easy when I got here, surprisingly they got harder. That's when I knew I had to work hard on myself before I could work hard with the team. So, I think that's one of the things that helped me a lot in the previous season.
Developing a winning mentality:
What I can and have improved a lot is my mentality. Having a winning mentality. It's only about winning now, nothing else. I hate losing! It's about winning and helping the team to win. The pressure of being at Mamelodi Sundowns is that you must win and it's very hard to impress our supporters because even the three points are not enough if you don't perform well. So, you are expected to win but still play well. Our supporters are not easy to impress. I'm working hard on myself to improve what I need to improve, and I think it will show on the field.
