Mahoto looks to exorcise Shilinde ghost
Mqondisi Dube | Saturday November 26, 2022 06:00
Any call-up of a player with Botswana links but now living abroad brings the comical and to a lesser extent, painful memories of the Shilinde saga. The ‘player’s representative’ Comfort ‘Big Fish’ Ramatebele thought he had made a big catch when he lured the supposedly excellent AFC Wimbledon player.
However, it did not need a second chance to convince then Zebras coach, Stanley Tshosane that Shilinde was not a football player. The saga threw football into some soul-searching as questions were asked about how someone who had masqueraded as a football player had received a national team call-up.
A sceptical nation was also justifiably apprehensive when Southend attacking midfielder, Renei Batlokwa was asked to join the Zebras in 2020.
While Batlokwa’s status as a football player was never in doubt, there were always questions if he was good enough to make the grade. After the one call-up, Batlokwa was not considered again and was released by Southend.
A fortnight ago, Zebras coach, Mogomotsi ‘Teenage’ Mpote got the football fans talking again when he called up Swedish-based, Ethany Mahoto.
The 23-year-old received a call-up from the Namibia national team coaches in 2020 but has not featured much other than a training camp ahead of the Africa Nations Championships finals.
Mpote said he had been monitoring the player and was in constant touch with his coach in Sweden. Mahoto recently told Mmegi Sport, he did not like the set-up within the Namibia national team at the time.
“I got a call up from Namibia In 2020. At the time they had two coaches that were on opposite sides of everything. One coach would criticise the other coach to a player and I didn’t like that. It was very unprofessional. I missed my flight back to Sweden because the driver did not come on time. He was two hours late to pick me up,” he said.
“I later told Mr Franco Cosmos who was the general secretary at the time that I didn’t want to come back; I had a very good relationship with him. He is a very good man. Back then I saw no plan forward for the Namibian team; I saw no structure,” he said.
Mahoto said he considers both Namibia and Botswana as his countries.
“I was born in Botswana (Francistown and my mum is Namibian. I have relatives in Francistown, Maun and Kasane. I have relatives in Namibia too,” he said.
Mahoto said Mpote has been talking to him for some time and the coach disclosed his Zebras plan to make the team better. He has praise for the Namibian national team coach as well.
“The current Namibian coach Collin Benjamin seems very professional and it seems like he has a plan going forward. I have only heard good things about him, to tell the truth,” he said.
Mahoto is currently playing in the lower leagues in Sweden but said he is prepared to make the next step up.
“Next season I will be playing higher. I haven’t been able to do that before since every time I’ve gone away to play higher, I have become homesick and have needed to move back home but I think I am mature enough to move away from home and play higher since I got offers from good clubs higher up in the system,” he said.
Mahoto said he has been involved in football from a young age.
“When I lived in Botswana my mom used to buy a ball for me as a reward for good grades at school after every semester as school was very important to her but it was always taken by the older boys when we were at the playground.”
Mahoto, who had a brief cameo for the Zebras against Angola in an international friendly match, recently said he was impressed with what he saw.
“The team is very young and hungry. It’s a very technical and exciting team. I think a lot of guys have the potential of playing higher up but everything is about how you perform on the field and what you do on the pitch,” he said.
The Gottne IF FC player is not concerned that he was given little time to impress on his first cap.
“I am not sure of how long I played in my debut but if you look at football, yes, they wanted to have a closer look at me but all my games are on television and the web.
They can still watch me even if I didn’t play a lot in my debut, you have to be patient. I just trained three times with the team before the game, and it takes time to get into a team,” he said.
Mahoto said being called up to the national team means the coaches saw something special about his performance.