Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso - Football journeymen don’t usually have a good reputation, but May Mahlangu seems to be an exception.
After nearly a decade playing abroad, the Bafana Bafana midfielder is at his seventh club and still feels he has so much to give to the national team and his new team in Romania, FC Dinamo Bucuresti, where he signed a 3-year deal last month.
He has won five trophies in the Swedish league, including a championship title, picking up the Footballer of the Year award along the way.
But injuries have a way of halting a budding career and Mahlangu found himself stranded just at a time when he had taken the decision to take up a challenge elsewhere by leaving Helsingborgs IF - a place he called home between 2008 and 2013, with loan spells in between.
From Sweden he was off to Turkey for six months and then to the Belgian Pro League, where he worked with Bafana’s top scorer Benni McCarthy, who was the assistant coach at Sint-Truidense.
Romania was his next stop.
“I have only played two games so far because I received my work permit late. The manager (Ioan Andone) wanted to use me straight away but there were delays with my paperwork,” said Mahlangu, speaking while we sit in hot, slightly humid conditions here ahead of Bafana’s opening 2018 World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso tonight.
“It is such a big team with humble ambitions. We have lost back-to-back games now and the fans are angry, which tells you just how massive the club is.
“I am there to achieve and the 3-year contract gives me a chance to settle in my first year and then show what I can do.”
It doesn’t bother him that he has moved from one club to another when a lot of people felt he could have easily stayed in Sweden, winning trophies and collecting personal accolades while also cementing his place as a Bafana regular.
With his potential, you can’t also help but think Mahlangu could have aimed a lot higher than settling in Bucharest.
“If you say I could have moved to a bigger league, I will ask you what you mean by that. When I played in Sweden, people didn’t know much about that league, or me for that matter, although Helsingborgs are a big club.
“I have played with guys like Henrik Larsson, a former Manchester United and Barcelona striker. Everything I achieved in Sweden didn't happen overnight. I worked hard - seven years to push myself and achieve,” the 27-year-old said. “You must have a plan and work hard. I went from being at the Stars of Africa Academy in South Africa straight to Europe; that was marvellous and a blessing.
“But then I was injured for nine months, which held me back and nobody wanted to sign an injured player. It was a test from God, but I don’t regret it.”
What a lot of people don’t know about Mahlangu’s career is that he almost moved to one of the biggest leagues in the world - the Spanish La Liga, where he would have rubbed shoulders with Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. But it wasn’t to be.
“I had an offer from Elche,” he reveals. “My agent (Rob Moore) worked hard to get me that deal and signed a lucrative contract. Then a few days later, the club told me they could not afford to pay me because of financial difficulties, so I had to take a decision between looking for another club or going to the Spanish lower divisions with them.
“Remember that they were relegated (at the end of the 2014-15 season) because of unpaid tax debts. What if I had gone there? May Mahlangu would be stuck in the lower leagues in Spain. Things happen for a reason.”
It’s Bucharest for now then.
The Star