Orlando Pirates star Oswin Appollis, who won the Midfielder of the Season award at Monday’s PSL end-of-the-season awards held virtually, says he’s happy for former teammate Relebohile Mofokeng after he won the coveted Footballer of the Season gong.
Mofokeng, who has since left Pirates for Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise off the back of helping Pirates win the league for the first time in 14 years, edged out Appollis and Mamelodi Sundowns’ Teboho Mokoena for the Footballer of the Season gong.
Mofokeng scored 11 goals and provided nine assists from 36 games in all competitions last season, while Appollis scored 12 times and racked up nine assists in 43 matches across all tournaments as Bucs also won the MTN8 and the Carling Knockout on top of their league triumph.
While some felt he should have won the Footballer of the Season award ahead of Mofokeng, Appollis is of the view that Mofokeng deserves it too, also pointing out that a few of his teammates like Sipho Chaine, Lebone Seema and Tshepang Moremi, among others, also had good enough seasons to win this big award.
“We are teammates. Rele and I spoke about it to say whoever wins it, we’d be happy. He deserves it also, and I think Tshepang, Seema, Sipho and Mbokazi [Mbokazi] also deserved to win it,” Appollis said during Pirates’ media open day at Rand Stadium on Tuesday.
The 24-year-old forward lauded his teammates for his Midfielder of the Season gong, insisting he would not have won it without them.
“I have to congratulate my teammates because without them it wasn’t going to be possible to win that award. Yes, of course, you always dream of winning individual awards, but at the end of the day you can’t win them without your teammates,” Appollis said.
Pirates host one of the league’s newbies Milford in their league opener at Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.
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