Thabang Rooi recently made his debut for Kaizer Chiefs and has been highly impressive in central defence, even earning special praise from coach Muhsin Ertugral. Graeme Jackson spoke to the player in this excerpt from the January edition of Amakhosi Magazine.

Kaizer Chiefs central defender Thabang Rooi, along with teammate Gordon Gilbert, was signed from First Division Inland Stream side Mpumalanga Black Aces prior to the start of the 2008/09 season on the back of impressive performances in the 2008 Nedbank Cup that saw AmaZayoni qualify for the final. Unfortunately the Mpumalanga side were not able to claim a fairytale victory, going down 1-0 to Mamelodi Sundowns thanks to Lerato Chabangu’s late goal. In fact, in the six matches (Aces beat Ga-Rankuwa United in the preliminary qualifying round prior to the last 32) and 540 minutes AmaZayoni played in the Nedbank Cup, they conceded just the one goal, with Rooi featuring at the heart of defence in each and every game.

The Vereeniging-born defender started out his professional career at Mabopane Young Masters, before moving into the top flight with the former Tembisa Classic franchise, today known as Maritzburg United. Rooi then moved on to Black Aces and now finds himself a fully fledged member of the Amakhosi family. The 25-year-old, who will celebrate his birthday two days after Christmas, is enjoying his time with the Club, having made an outstanding debut against BidVest Wits on November 22.

“It feels great to have finally played for Kaizer Chiefs,” said Rooi. “I’ve been waiting for my chance to come and I am happy that I have done a good job for the team so far. At the start of the season, when I wasn’t playing, everyone was encouraging me, telling me not to give up and that my time would come. Now it has, and I think that the players and the coaches now have faith in me.”

One of the reasons that Rooi did not feature in the early part of the campaign was the fact that he needed to adjust to Chiefs’ way of playing under Muhsin Ertugral. As the coach himself said: “It took a little bit of time to get him (Rooi) playing this way. We were not happy with what he was doing at training... but then of course training is different from a match situation.”

Reacting to this, the defender believes that Ertugral’s approach has forced him to become a better all-round footballer. “At first the coach was not pleased with the way I was playing, but I have worked hard at training to adapt to the style he wants us to use. You know, when you play in the first division, like I did last season, the job of a defender is just to defend, nothing else. But here at Chiefs, the coach wants us to use the ball all the time, pass it between us. I used to just clear the ball without any thought of where it was going, but now I have learnt how important it is to keep possession. You could definitely say that I have become a better player.”

Another factor in Rooi’s rise to prominence is the fact that he lost a lot of weight and has gotten himself into superb physical condition. Amakhosi fans won’t be surprised to hear that Fitness Trainer Elsa Storm had a big part to play in this. “She (Storm) has helped me lose so much weight! Elsa really encourages you, and tells you never to give up. I am a hard worker, and she has pushed me to do even more work on my fitness. She has also shown me how important my diet is. Before I came to Chiefs I used to eat everything, all these bad things that can make you put on weight, but now I only have healthy food.”

Rooi’s emergence has coincided with Valery Nahayo’s return to first team action, and the two seem to have struck up quite a solid partnership: “Valery and I speak to each other and encourage each other, even in training we will talk about how we want to play. All the defenders support each other, and I have gotten a lot of encouragement from the central defenders Mokete (Tsotetsi) and Jonathan (Quartey), as well as Valery.”

Having played in the top flight with Maritzburg United the season before last, Rooi is no stranger to the demands of top flight football, and he is pleased to be back in the PSL. However, he does acknowledge that there is a lot of pressure playing for a Club like Chiefs.

“The Chiefs fans want us to win every game that we play, so there is definitely a greater pressure than I have experienced before in my career. But that expectation pushes the players to a new level, and we want to make the supporters happy by winning games.”