How Dithejane hid under the bed to snub Sundowns for Chiefs
Puso Dithejane has since moved to the US where he recently signed for Chicago Fire from TS Galaxy and he’s now one of South Africans Abroad.
Kaizer Chiefs youth coach Vela Khumalo has recalled how Puso Dithejane had to hide under the bed to avoid going to Mamelodi Sundowns.
At the time, Dithejane was with Transnet School of Excellence, and he had made up his mind about joining Amakhosi.
However, Sundowns showed huge interest in him but the player just wanted to play under Khumalo at Chiefs.
One day, Sundowns arrived at School of Excellence to try and fetch Dithejane but he quickly gave Khumalo a phone call.
Speaking to KickOff, Khumalo said he told Dithejane to hide under the bed until he got there, and that’s how the player ended up at Chiefs.
He was nurtured at Chiefs until recently when he left unceremoniously due to differences with the management.
Dithejane and Omega Mdaka had gone against the management’s decision to deploy them as ball boys in matches involving the Chiefs senior team.
He later joined TS Galaxy and became a star that would later catch the eye of Chicago Fire coaches in the Major League Soccer (MLS) in the US.
Also read | South Africans Abroad: Campbell makes UEFA Champions League debut with Club Brugge
DITHEJANE HAD TO HIDE UNDER THE BED FOR SUNDOWNS
“Dithejane… remember Mamelodi Sundowns wanted him after seeing him in the national team. He scored the last goal in that under-17 tournament,” Khumalo tells KickOff.
“And then Dithejane told me, ‘Coach, I want to play under you’, and then Sundowns came to where he was playing at the time, at the School of Excellence, looking to sign him.
“That’s when he called me on my phone, saying, ‘hey coach, Sundowns are here, and they want to sign me, but I don’t want to go there, I want to play under you’.
“Then I said to him, ‘hide there’. Then he said to me, ‘but where can I hide here because they are already here?’ I said, ‘under the bed, I’m coming’.
“So, he hid there until I came to pick him up. That’s how he ended up with me at Kaizer Chiefs. It’s survival, what else can we do [laughs]”.
WHAT WERE HIS NUMBERS AT TS GALAXY?
The 21-year-old left TS Galaxy having featured 63 times for them. He scored seven goals and provided 13 assists.
This season only, Dithejane scored four goals and provided six assists in 16 competitive matches for the Rockets.