Mashiane was earlier this week promoted from the Chiefs reserve side to the senior team, after impressing coach Ernst Middendorp both in training and in the Multichoice Diski Challenge.
The 21-year-old fullback joins the likes of Godfrey Walusimbi, Siphosakhe Ntiya-Ntiya and Lehlogonolo Mirwa in competition for a place on the left-side byline.
Having started training with the senior team since the start of the year, Mashiane has undoubtedly been dreaming of moving up the ranks and will now permanently rub shoulders with some of the Amakhosi stars.
There is one in particular the Tembisa-born defender has been awestruck by, and they both hail from the same township.
“I used to take pictures with George Maluleka [at Philly’s Games]. Sadly enough, I don’t have these photos anymore,” revealed the youngster on his club’s website.
“As a child, I took pictures with my hero. Now, after having signed with the senior team, I sit in the same dressing room as George. I am humbled.”
His inherited love for The Glamour Boys from his father also means his earliest memories date back to the time of midfield ace Thabo Mooki, who served the club with aplomb between 1994 and 2009, though Mashiane would likely only remember his time in the mid to late-2000s.
“My dad has always been a huge Kaizer Chiefs supporter. My big hero was Thabo Mooki. I loved watching him play,” he added.
As for his ambitions, Mashiane has insisted he is not one for the personal glory of banging in goals but rather of a giving nature by providing assists, while his main focus is to make his mother proud for all she sacrificed in supporting his career.
“I don’t like to get favours for scoring a goal. I find it much more rewarding to give an assist,” says ‘Vavo’, as he is affectionately known.
“I want to make my family proud and to make my mother happy. She ran a daycare from home to get an income. She’s simply amazing. She did everything for me. As they say, ‘If a mother is happy everything will fall into place.’”
