The rise of Senzo Meyiwa through the Orlando Pirates junior development ranks to becoming a fully-fledged goalkeeper and Pirates number one shot-stopper and subsequently Bafana Bafana's number one goalkeeper before his untimely death at the tender age of 27 years is one of inspiration and courage.
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Soccer Laduma looks back at some of the key moments which demonstrated the undisputable talent that was Senzo Meyiwa.
The KwaZulu Natal-born Meyiwa joined the Bucs academy in 2000 at the age of 13-years-old.
At 18-years-old, Meyiwa tasted of his first team action when he was promoted to the Bucs' senior team in the 2005/06 season.
From then on Meyiwa's career would peak as he became the first choice goalkeeper in the 2007/08 season where he made a total of 24 league appearances.
The arrival of the more experienced Moeneeb Josephs the following season resulted in Senzo becoming 'Slim Kat's understudy for three-and-a-half seasons. The following season saw 'Nzori' assuming his role as Bucs' number one, playing an important role in helping Pirates win the Double Treble of 2010/11 and 2011/12, where the Buccaneers won two MTN8 titles, two Absa Premiership titles, the Telkom Knockout and the Nedbank Cup.
An interesting fact about Meyiwa's career at Pirates is that although Lucky Lekgwathi holds the record of being the longest serving senior or professional player at Pirates since joining the club in 2002, Meyiwa topped that by being the player who has been at the club the longest since he joined in 2000.
Here are some stats of what Meyiwa was able to achieve in his 14 year career at Pirates.
Since 2009, starting with a league match against Golden Arrows, Meyiwa, till Orlando Pirates' last league game in the 2014/15 season, kept 56 clean sheets and led Pirates to 65 victories
In cup games, Meyiwa managed 33 appearances since the 2010/11 season, winning 22 times and keeping nine clean sheets.
