Mikia Kalati
LAST Saturday Kick4Life held their annual end of the season awards to reward their outstanding individuals from the recently ended 2017/18 season.
The club finished the 2017/18 Econet Premier League campaign on sixth position while they also managed a third place in the Independence Top4 tournament, walking away with M60 000.
They also managed to make it to the quarterfinals of the LNIG Top8, where they were knocked out by Matlama.
Likano Teele and Nkoto Masoabi were the big winners in Saturday’s event, winning the two biggest awards of the day.
Veteran defender, Teele in his second season with the club walked away with the player of the season award and received a trophy and prize money of M2 000.
Masoabi, who is the club top goal scorer, having netted 17 goals in all competitions, walked away with the player of the season and the Golden Boot awards, taking home M3 000 for the double accolades.
The lanky striker who is part of the national team squad that left for the COSAFA Cup on yesterday (Wednesday), is also set to win the Top Goal Scorer award in the league having finished the season on top of the goal scoring charts with 16 league goals, is followed by Matlama’s Motebang Sera at 12 goals.
Bonang Mohapi and Mokoteli Mohapi walked away with the Young Player and Most Improved Player of the Season awards respectively.
The two players, who were part of the national under-20 team that lost the final of the regional COSAFA Cup in Zambia last year, took home M1000 and M1, 500 respectively.
Speaking at the awards ceremony, Kick4Life football director, Chris Bullock, admitted that they were disappointed to have failed to finish the season among the top four teams in the league.
“It was always going to be difficult for us to maintain the performance of the previous season after losing a number of our key players.
“I saw this season as a transition year because we brought in some young players,” Bullock said.
“There was no running away from the fact that it was going to be difficult to repeat the top four-finish we achieved in the previous season.”
However, Bullock said there are a lot of positives to take into the new season.
“All in all, I thought we had a good season, finishing in top six and also beating Lioli to secure third positon playing in our first ever Independence tournament,” the Kick4Life football director said.
“We also showed that we can compete with and are capable of beating the top sides.
“There was a little bit of disappointment in the end after we missed out on the top four finish, having had it in our hands, in addition to losing out to Matlama in the quarterfinals of the LNIG tournament after winning the first leg match.
“We were 15 minutes away from knocking them out of the competition, but all in all I think we continued to move in the right direction in line with our long-term plan,” he said.
Matlama went all the way to clinch the trophy beating Bantu in the final.
The Kick4life football director, however, was not in a position to discuss the appointment of Bob Mafoso, who has confirmed his departure from Bantu.
Mafoso was the assistant coach to James Madidliane, who has also hinted a departure from the Mafeteng based outfit after leading the club to back to back league title.
Added Bullock: “For the next season we want to take another step towards becoming a top side in the country and have put plans in place on and off the field to try and achieve that.
“At the moment there is nothing to say on it. If we make some changes to our technical team or playing squad we will make an announcement.”
Kick4Life Player of the Season awards:
Player of the season (M 2000): Likano Teele
Players’ player of the season (M1, 500): Nkoto Masoabi
Top Goal Scorer (M1, 500): Nkoto Masoabi
Young Player of the Season M1 000): Bonang Mohapi
Most Improved Player (M1, 500): Mokoteli Mohapi
Chairman’s award: Ramashamole Montsuoe
