Posted in News on May 09, 2007.
It was just over a year ago on Monday the 8th May 2006 when Ntsoelengoe was found lifeless at the steering wheel of his car in a parking lot of a hotel in Lenasia South of Johannesburg, and Doctors believe that Ace, as he was affectionately or commonly known by his peers, passed away of a heart attack.
At the time of his passing away Ntsoelengoe was a coach of the Kaizer Chiefs under 15 team and gained the respect of his young team as he handed out years of experience to the on the training ground.
Widely regarded as one of South Africa’s best players ever, and put on a list with Manchester United’s Welsh wizard Ryan Giggs and former Manchester United and Northern Ireland international George Best, as the best players of their generation never to have participated in a Fifa World Cup, Ntsoelengoe joined Chiefs in 1969 when the club was still known as Kaizer XI.
Ntsoelengoe caught the attention of The Amakhosi while turning out for Mohlakeng Zebras, an amateur team who played out of Randfontein (now Mogale City), west of Johannesburg where Ace had grown up.
Ntsoelengoe was instrumental in The Amakhosi’s success of the early 1970’s and it was his eye-catching displays with Chiefs which saw him earn a move in 1973 to the North American Soccer League in the United States, where he rubbed shoulders with world football stars of the time the likes of Franz Beckenbauer and Pele.
Ace first turned out for the Miami Toros and after just one season in Miami he moved inland and joined the Denver Dynamos; again he spent one season there before finding a home with Minnesota Kicks.
It was with the Kicks where he blasted his way into US soccer folklore, playing in a 155 games over six seasons and along the way he contributed with fifty-two goals.
Ntsoelengoe moved from the Kicks and made his new home in Toronto Canada from 1981 – 1984 as he turned out in the colours of the Toronto Blizzards. He was equally instrumental in ensuring that the Blizzards etched their name on to the NASL trophy as they made it to the Championship Final in 1983 and 1984 with the Blizzards.
Even though he spent the bulk of his footballing career playing in the NASL in the United States and Canada, Ntsoelengoe did spend the off-season in South Africa and continued to turn out for The Amakhosi. He was part of the all-conquering Chiefs team of 1984, which won all trophies on offer that season, a team that was hailed as the greatest club team in South Africa at the end of the 20th century.
At the time of his death in May last year, Ntsoelengoe had just turned fifty a few months earlier, he was widely tipped to play a leading role in the future development of football in South Africa. Once described by Chiefs chairman Kaizer Motaung as a talented footballer who thought with his feet and his head, Ntsoelengoe’s legend lives on, as a number of the players who had played under him in the Chiefs development have now graduated and regularly turn out for the Kaizer Chiefs reserve team.
‘Ace’ is missed everyday at Kaizer Chiefs.
Patrick ‘Ace’ Ntsoelengoe; 26 February 1956 – 8 May 2006
