In 2018 Khanyisa Mayo was nowhere near the top, playing reserve league football with SuperSport United while his under-20 national team buddies such as Teboho Mokena, Sipho Mbule and Siyabonga Ngezana were already Premiership stars.
Today Mayo, who’s the property of Cape Town City, is in Bafana Bafana's squad to play Morocco in the opening game of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on Thursday (9pm).
The 23-year-old striker was rewarded with the call-up after playing a telling role in helping the Citizens finish second in the DStv Premiership.
Seeing his friends cracking it at the highest level never demoralised Mayo. The son of Kaizer Chiefs legend Patrick Mayo chalked up his meteoric rise to the time he spent in the second tier of SA football, playing for the likes of Ubuntu Cape Town and Richards Bay.
“Witnessing my peers and friends succeeding while I was still nowhere near playing top-flight football didn’t discourage me. I was happy for them and I knew I will one day also make it to the top. They were representing me as well at that time, and now I am also representing them as I am here with the senior national team,” Mayo said.
“When I left SuperSport I had to re-establish myself in the GladAfrica Championship. I was scoring goals there and I can say that was the turning point in my career because that’s where Cape Town City scouted me [when he was playing for newly promoted Bay].”
Meanwhile, Mayo’s City teammate Terrence Mashego was released from Bafana's squad after picking up a knee injury. Mashego trusts fellow left-backs Lyle Lakay of Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates’ Innocent Maela are capable of doing the job in his absence. Liberia is the other nation in Bafana’s Group K after Zimbabwe were disqualified due to a Fifa ban.
“I was looking forward to this game, but I believe we still have Lyle Lakay and [Innocent] Maela, who I believe can do the job. I just have to focus on my injury right now and make sure that I come back,” Mashego told the Safa media department.
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Image: Shaun Roy/BackpagePix
In 2018 Khanyisa Mayo was nowhere near the top, playing reserve league football with SuperSport United while his under-20 national team buddies such as Teboho Mokena, Sipho Mbule and Siyabonga Ngezana were already Premiership stars.
Today Mayo, who’s the property of Cape Town City, is in Bafana Bafana's squad to play Morocco in the opening game of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat on Thursday (9pm).
The 23-year-old striker was rewarded with the call-up after playing a telling role in helping the Citizens finish second in the DStv Premiership.
Seeing his friends cracking it at the highest level never demoralised Mayo. The son of Kaizer Chiefs legend Patrick Mayo chalked up his meteoric rise to the time he spent in the second tier of SA football, playing for the likes of Ubuntu Cape Town and Richards Bay.
“Witnessing my peers and friends succeeding while I was still nowhere near playing top-flight football didn’t discourage me. I was happy for them and I knew I will one day also make it to the top. They were representing me as well at that time, and now I am also representing them as I am here with the senior national team,” Mayo said.
“When I left SuperSport I had to re-establish myself in the GladAfrica Championship. I was scoring goals there and I can say that was the turning point in my career because that’s where Cape Town City scouted me [when he was playing for newly promoted Bay].”
Meanwhile, Mayo’s City teammate Terrence Mashego was released from Bafana's squad after picking up a knee injury. Mashego trusts fellow left-backs Lyle Lakay of Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates’ Innocent Maela are capable of doing the job in his absence. Liberia is the other nation in Bafana’s Group K after Zimbabwe were disqualified due to a Fifa ban.
“I was looking forward to this game, but I believe we still have Lyle Lakay and [Innocent] Maela, who I believe can do the job. I just have to focus on my injury right now and make sure that I come back,” Mashego told the Safa media department.
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