Clive Barker knew from the first day he saw Themba Zwane that he was destined for greater things and explains why he compared him to Doctor Khumalo.
The legendary Barker was responsible for turning the player's football career around when he arrived at Mpumalanga Black Aces on loan from Mamelodi Sundowns in 2013.
On Thursday night 'Mshishi' was the biggest winner during the 2019/20 PSL Awards winning Midfielder of the Season, Players' Player of the Season and Footballer of the Season.
On Saturday he was at it again, turning on the style against Kaizer Chiefs and scoring from the penalty spot in a 3-0 victory for Mamelodi Sundowns.
"Wonderful. It couldn't happen to a nicer person. "He deserves all the success that he's got, I knew he'd be the champion," Barker tells snl24.com/kickoff.
Barker said when he wanted Zwane to join AmaZayoni on loan he knew how it would turn out, hence he compared him to the great Doctor Khumalo.
"Yeah I saw that he was similar to... he wasn't as good, but he was similar to Doctor Khumalo. And I thought to myself we were able to build a team around Doctor, and that's exactly what I think Sundowns has done because they built the team around him and he delivered the goods."
Zwane was given a guard of honour at Chloorkop after winning PSL Footballers of the Season
His former mentor continues: "There's still more to come, like I said he's the right guy to build the team around. It's fantastic to be around him. I'm happy for his family, I'm happy for him in particular.
"When he drinks champagne because I don't know if he drinks champagne, but I hope he says, 'Well done.' Because he deserves it, he's been fantastic.
"Players they can play but I let them play... you can talk to them in a teamtalk you know, but you know they're not going to give you what you want, so I don't restrict players that can play, I let them do their own thing.
"I think that's been a success for Themba. I think they enjoyed the way we played [Aces players], it was a nice facility, big crowd, big ground.
"I'm just so sorry that they got rid of the team like they did when they sold it [the Morfou brothers]. Who knows what they could have achieved if they carried on."
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