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Sithole is proud of his staying power at Stars

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Head coach Themba Sithole has been at Free State Stars since 1989, when he joined the club as a player. Picture: Luigi Bennett / BackpagePix
Head coach Themba Sithole has been at Free State Stars since 1989, when he joined the club as a player. Picture: Luigi Bennett / BackpagePix

If loyalty was a person, it would look like Free State Stars’ long-serving technical team member Themba Sithole.

Sithole, who turns 56 next month, is celebrating three decades at Stars, which he joined as a player in 1989, when the club was then known as Fairway Stars.

He is currently the team’s head coach in the NFD GladAfrica Championship, where Stars are well on track for a return to the Premiership following their relegation last season.

“I believe the more you stay at one club, the more you become productive,” said Sithole.

“That’s what loyalty means in my case. And where will I go? Bra Mike has been good to me all these years,” Sithole said with pride.

He was paying tribute to his boss, Stars owner Mike Mokoena.

The only time Sithole and the Stars brand were separated was in 2002, when the PSL bought the club’s franchise, alongside that of Ria Stars, to reduce the league from 18 to 16 clubs.

Sithole, who turns 56 next month, is celebrating three decades at Stars, which he joined as a player in 1989, when the club was then known as Fairway Stars.

Still, Sithole and the Mokoena family were in it together during the three years that culminated in Stars’ return to the elite league in 2005.

Sithole has also been the secret behind the club’s on-point scouting that has boosted their coffers for years.

“Scouting for players who later brought revenue to the club has been my way of contributing to the club that has been so supportive to me,” he said.

“If you remember, this club has made players and coaches. I brought the likes of Kennedy Mweene [now at Mamelodi Sundowns] and Siphiwe Tshabalala [formerly with Kaizer Chiefs] when they were unknown, and big clubs bought them from us,” said Sithole proudly.

Apart from the scouting, Sithole has served Ea Lla Koto in many other capacities since he hung up his boots in 2002.

He started out as an assistant coach and, on many occasions, stood in as a caretaker coach, a role he has filled since 2008.

In an era when money is the pulling power in the game, it is hard to imagine any player, let alone a coach, spending their entire career at one club.

For their part, Stars have, on a number of occasions, rewarded Sithole for his loyalty by sending him on high-level coaching courses, including one in England in 2011, the same year he attained his CAF B Licence badge.

“Themba has represented himself so well since he joined us as a player from Bloemfontein Celtic. He has been good to me and my family. It’s the reason we have invested in him so much, sending him for coaching courses. He deserves something special,” said Mokoena, who also paid homage to assistant coach Duncan Lechesa.

For their part, Stars have, on a number of occasions, rewarded Sithole for his loyalty by sending him on high-level coaching courses, including one in England in 2011, the same year he attained his CAF B Licence badge.

Mokoena regards Lechesa, a former Stars player-turned-coach, as another loyal son of the Ea Lla Koto family.

Some people believe that “one-club wonders” only exist at smaller clubs. But Sithole is in good company as there is a group of a rare breed of loyal “backroom boys” at prominent Premiership clubs.

Sundowns kit manager Freddy Zungu has been at the club since 1990. The 56-year-old, from Ga-Machacha in Limpopo, has been part of the transition from the era of the former owners, the Tsichlas family, to the takeover by mining mogul Patrice Motsepe.

Zungu has been part of Sundowns’ success – all nine league titles in the PSL era, including the 2016/17 CAF Champions League and Super Cup winners’ medals.

The men who handle the kits are among the most loyal in football.

At Orlando Pirates, it’s Pule Sithebe, while Zola Luthuli has had the staying power at Maritzburg United and “Oom” Albert Hendricks is the toast of Ajax Cape Town.

But there is probably no one who epitomises the one-club wonder tradition as much as Amien Kaldine, the Kaizer Chiefs support staff member known in local football circles as “Bra Spy”.

The 63-year-old from Kliptown in Soweto has been with Chiefs from the day the club was founded in 1970.


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