Pirates and Sundowns dominate at the virtual PSL Awards show
It was a two-team show as Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns players dominated the virtual 2023/4 PSL Awards show on Sunday evening. A person who knows nothing about South African football would be forgiven to think the DSTV Premiership has only two teams after watching that awards event on television.
Devin Titus of Stellenbosch FC was the only one to break the Sundowns and Pirates stranglehold. The 23-year-old deservedly took home the Carling Knockout Player of the Tournament accolade. All the nominees for this award came from Stellenbosch FC.
Orlando Pirates collected eight awards on the night. Tshegofatso Mabasa’s Top Goalscorer Award is the only one that did not come from a cup competition. Pirates won the MTN8 and Nedbank Cup last season, beating, you guessed it, Mamelodi Sundowns in both finals. All the individual awards from both competitions are in the Orlando Pirates books.
Young Relebohile Mofokeng cemented his stature as “Captain wama 2000” by winning the Young Player of the Season award. Mofokeng annexed the Nedbank Cup Most Promising Player of the Tournament as well. It was truly a breakout season for the smiling assassin who scored the winning goal in the Nedbank Cup final.
Goalkeeper Sipho Chaine, the hero of the MTN8 final, collected the MTN8 Last Man Standing award. The biggest winner from the Bucs ship, however, was midfielder Patrick Maswanganyi. The Tembisa ambulance, as he is now known, collected the Nedbank Player of the Tournament, DSTV Midfielder of the Season, and DSTV Players’ Player of the Season.
As the league winners, Mamelodi Sundowns went back to Chloorkop with the Goalkeeper of the Season, Defender of the Season, and Coach of the Season awards. After breaking all sorts of records as the sole head coach, Rulani Mokwena was named DSTV Coach of the Year. Grant Kekana collected the defenders’ price while Ronwen Williams won the Goalkeeper of the Season trophy. The Chairman’s Award is also headed to Chloorkop.
The biggest prize of the evening, PSL Footballer of the Season went to a goalkeeper for only the third time in the awards’ history. Rownwen Williams joins Andre Arendse and Ithumeleng Khune as the only goalminders to have won the PSL’s highest individual accolade.
