Lightning does strike the same place twice

Meet the young man who redefined the famous phrase “Lightning doesn’t strike the same place twice” when he scored two similar long rage goals respectively in the 2019 Varsity Football Tournament. Thuso Godfrey Mlamla best known to his teammates as Gala-Gala (How he got that name is a story for another day). The 21 year old from Freedom Park, Rustenburg (North West) plays Central Defensive Middlefield for Tshwane University of Technology (TUT, The People's University) high performance team.

Thuso started playing football at the age of Nine (9) playing for the Royal Bafokeng Holdings. “I remember we were in class when the teacher came with an empty paper for all those who were interested in playing football to fill their names in and so I did. I started as a goalkeeper up until I was Twelve (12) years old, my then coach Mr. Mahobe (who’s now late) of Mahobe FC introduced me to the center back position” he said.

At the age of Fourteen (14) he joined Platinum Stars Academy where he didn’t play for long, he then moved to Impala FC where he played the SAB League during the one season he was signed for and this was when he was Sixteen (16), after the season ended he went back to Platinum Stars played there until he decided to further his studies at TUT. Thuso didn’t just join the University’s high performance team the minute he set his foot there, he started playing for his residence’s team Junction FC then later on in the year when TUT FC had its trials he decided to give it a shot and was selected to form part of the team, he said “It is such an honor to play for such a big institution like TUT with incredible football support. There’s always pressure, especially with the will of wanting to win at all costs, it is humbling to play for a SAB team which is well organized like most of the professional teams”.

He made his debut appearance in the Varsity Football Tournament in 2019 as a newcomer, it was during round Three (3) of the tournament when he registered his name amongst the goal scorers scoring a long range goal following a corner kick that not only shocked the goalkeeper but the fans were extremely pleased. When many said that goal could have been a “beginner’s luck” he went to show the world that lightning does strike the same place twice when he scored a similar long range goal during round Six(6) of the tournament.

Like any other football player and his team, Mlamla has suffered what he referred to as his biggest loss and this came after the Varsity Football Tournament finals which they played against North West University (2019), “I got a red card, it still hurts even today but with the support I received from my family, friends and teammates that has really helped ease everything, I felt like I was the one who disappointed the team” he said.

One of the toughest things that footballers have to take in is being benched, when asked if he has been benched before and what did he take from it his response was “I was once benched for a whole full season and this was because of lack of discipline that is being young and naive. To be honest it was not nice to attend training everyday only for me not to touch the ball and still have to watch other people do it. At first I didn’t know what was the problem and yes at some point I thought that coach didn’t like me until I did a self-introspection and realized that my ill-disciplined behavior was affecting my football performance.” he went on to add “I realized that talking doesn’t make you a good player but hard work and discipline does. I had to cut off a lot of things and change my behavior to make sure that my performance was up to a standard to have me off the bench”.

Thuso says that if he wasn’t playing football he would be known as a chess player, he has been playing in different chess tournaments from grade Five (5) to grade Eleven (11) when he decided to rather focus more on his football path instead. When one isn’t a player themselves they have their own misconceptions about players, especially those in the starting Eleven (11) his take on misconceptions about footballers was “People think there is some perfection about us, but they forget that we are human beings and we also make mistakes or we just enjoy the luxury of walking around in tracksuits with the logos of our respective teams when one doesn’t really get that to wear all these branded tracksuits just like the ones we do takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears which is something people never talk about”.

He went on to say “Football has taught me that nothing is permanent and things will not always go your way”. From his journey one can gather that this is a player who has had his ups and downs but the love for the game really got the best out of him, that is after every fall you have a choice to either continue feeling sorry for yourself or to pick yourself up and do it again like to never fell. In closing he was asked to give advice to his younger self and he said “Situations, whether good or bad do not last forever, people are not always going to be there for you, learn to handle things on your own.”

From our team we would like to wish Thuso all the best there is in his football and academic life. We say always shoot for the space for when you come short you will land amongst the stars.