Orlando Pirates striker Zakhele Lepasa has revealed that he tried three times to leave the Buccaneers prior to the start of this season.
Get fired up and bet on all the drama of local diski The 25-year-old forward suffered an ankle fracture against Chippa United in December 2020 and was sidelined for a year.
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fracture against Chippa United in December 2020 and was sidelined for a year.
He then returned to the field in December last year in a DStv Premiership match against AmaZulu. However, following that he would struggle to break into the starting line-up.
When the Sea Robbers reached the CAF Confederation Cup final in the past campaign, Lepasa was longing to be part of that historical match, only to find out the day before that he was excluded from the matchday squad.
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That was when the former TS Galaxy man started to ponder about his future at the club before he decided to ask to leave seeing that he was no longer valuable to the Ezimnyama Ngenkani.
LEPASA – ‘I EVEN CRIED THAT DAY’
“I had personally asked to leave,” Lepasa said in an interview with Sports Night Amplified with Andile Ncube on Metro FM.
“I asked to leave.”
When asked when, he clarified: “I came back [from injury] and being loaned or leaving was not part of the plan and then I did not have good games.
“And I think the biggest eye opener for me was when there was a 22-man squad, it was one of the most emotional days of my life where I’ve been playing, I came back, I haven’t reached my peak yet, I haven’t found my form but I was given chances and chances and chances.
“And then the team probably play the biggest game in the last 10 years when we played the CAF [Confederation Cup] final and I saw day before that I’m not [going to be] playing.
“Everyone trained and they just sat me down. So we warmed-up, everyone warmed-up, everyone is fine and then they are like eleven v eleven, then I was sitting down.
“And I was the only one the only in-field player sitting down, the other person was just Wayne Sandilands.
“I was so emotional, it’s crazy I even cried that day because I just realised how much of an opportunity I missed. Before I even saw that I’m missing this opportunity, I saw it the day before that I’m not gonna play tomorrow.
‘My agent called them’
“And I prepared so much for that game for the whole month I was only focused on that game, everything, I was so ready for that game but unfortunately you know, you can only convince yourself if you’re ready or not.
“And I did not hate anyone, I did not look at the coach and I was like, ‘I hate this coach’ no.
I just said, I just how much of an opportunity I missed and from that time I went into my shallow and I thought maybe this thing is not for me or maybe I’m not as important anymore or maybe I should start looking somewhere else and try regain my strength, my confidence and in SA I’m still young but in football I’m not young.
“I thought to myself maybe I’ll play for a big team again, I’ll see what happens but I was ready to call it quits.
During pre-season, I tried more than three times to leave and the club kept saying no, my agent tried calling them, ‘can he please go somewhere else to find a team’ they said no.
“They bought a striker and they thought ok, ‘he [Lepasa] is definitely not gonna play’ but the chairman kept saying no.”
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