The goalkeeper with big hands

MAFETENG – FOOTBALL followers will remember the Bantu Football Club goalkeeper with big hands in the 1990s. This is none other than Letsoha Khetsi, a giant, muscular and tall shot-stopper who stood at 1.98 metres. Khetsi has been associated with Bantu football club from his childhood.

Born and raised as a passionate football fanatic in Ha-Motlere in Mafeteng, Khetsi was bound to find a home at a football club near his home and he ended up as part of ‘A Matšo Matebele’.
His home was just a stone’s throw away from Bantu’s home ground in Mafeteng.

“I was introduced to Bantu at an early age when I was only five years old. It was around 1984 when I would accompany Ntsane Mokhachane, a former Bantu player, to training at the Bantu ground,” he said.

“He made me carry his kit to and from the ground. As I grew older, it became my routine to always attend Bantu’s training sessions.”

Khetsi became a ball boy at Bantu’s training sessions.

“During the team’s shooting practice, I would stand behind the goal posts and dive for stray balls that went behind the posts,” said Khetsi.

His actual engagement as a soccer player began when he moved to secondary school in 1991.

“I never played for the school team when I was at primary level because I was still young then,” he said. “You know at primary, older folks were always chosen to represent the school in sports tournaments. I only got exposed to school sports when I was in ’Masentle High School.”

Khetsi played in the inter Form A soccer tournament at school.

“I volunteered to play as a goalkeeper on the day and I performed exceptionally well. Since then I never looked back and concentrated my efforts on being a professional goalkeeper,” he recalled.

Team mates and supporters described him as a fantastic goalkeeper and were not surprised when he was promoted to the senior school team while doing Form B.

Having enjoyed his spell as the school goalkeeper, Khetsi then decided to join Bantu’s development team. He featured in all the younger age groups by beginning training with the under-17 until he was ultimately promoted to the senior team.

“I knew immediately that this was the team I was going to spend my entire football career at,” he said.

He moved through the team’s age groups until he played for the Under-20 team.

“It was then that I was promoted to the senior team although I did not immediately feature as the regular goalkeeper,” said Khetsi, who is among a few privileged players to have donned the gold and black jersey in the 1990s.

He was among the crop of players who came into the limelight with the likes of Lehlohonolo Seema and the late Poopo Matšoara.

“In essence, once I was promoted to the Bantu senior team it was not easy for me to break into the first team. For three seasons, I was on the bench most of the time learning the ropes,” he said.

“I rigorously took my time to learn until I made into the first 11. It wasn’t that easy as Bantu had always been studded with quality players.”

Khetsi’s training and experience as a goalkeeper has taught him many things as far as goalkeeping is concerned. He said a good goalkeeper must have dedication to duty.

“My experience in life has taught me that talent is inborn, goalkeeping is a talent that one possesses from birth,” he said.

Khetsi says his height had little to do with his reputation as a good goalkeeper, instead pointing to flexibility and timing.

“Goalkeeping needs passion, discipline and concentration.”

Against the assumption that keepers only have a busy day when they are persistently bombarded with shots, Khetsi stated that good goalkeeping entails giving instructions to fellow players during the entire game.

“As a goalkeeper, you must not only concentrate when the ball is around your 18 area. You must concentrate while it is still in the opponent’s half. This comes in handy to be able to organise your defence,” he said. “A seasoned goalkeeper must stay alert from kick-off to the end of the game.”

Like any other footballer, Khetsi had highs and lows during his playing career.

“I have had wonderful experiences as a soccer player but the most memorable game I played was against Bloemfontein Celtic which we hosted at Bantu’s stadium in Mafeteng and Lehlononolo Seema was chosen to play for them,” he said.

“It was a great game as all players came to the party and I was on top of my game on the day. But I had sleepless nights on the days when my team did not perform well,” said Khetsi, describing himself as “the kind of person who doesn’t easily come to terms with failure”.

He recalled a game they played against LDF in which Bantu dominated in all aspects of the game “but lady luck was not on our side that day as we lost”.

“It felt so awful.”

Many soccer followers glee at the different stunts performed by goalkeepers but Khetsi is best remembered by many soccer fans as a goalkeeper who would not use gloves but only use his bare hands even during professional premier league games.

Some fans believed that his big palms and fingers did not fit standard gloves. Khetsi denies this.

“I preferred goalkeeping with my raw hands. I wanted to have a feel of the ball so I didn’t bother to use the gloves,” he said.

“I used to own pairs of gloves but my hands never felt comfortable in them. Yes, sometimes it would have been a question of size, but they would always fit,” he said.

Among his achievements in soccer, Khetsi won several domestic cups with Bantu and also national call ups in the junior level. As a soccer legend, Khetsi has been observing the changes and development of the beautiful game in the country. He attributed the stagnant growth of the sport to lack of funding.

“If you compare players from Lesotho with those from other countries, you would realise we equal them or even surpass them as far as skill is concerned,” he said.

“The reason that our players seem not to be living up to expectation is because they lack motivation in the form of financial support.”

Khetsi complained that many teams are paying their players peanuts.

“Even when the players are on national duty they earn peanuts. That is unlikely to motivate them to produce good results. They are simply demoralised as compared to their counterparts from other countries.”

He said the premier league in Lesotho is now dominated by teams from the lowlands as opposed to those from the highlands. Khetsi said this has been caused by the failure of teams from the highlands to transform and evolve, particularly when it comes to the selection of players.

“It would have been fantastic if teams from all the 10 districts of the country took part in the premier league. This would bolster competition in the league,” he said.

He claimed that teams from the highlands are still preoccupied with the premise that only players from their locality can feature in their teams.

“The result is that such teams keep on underperforming. “

“Look at Melele FC, for instance, they couldn’t maintain their status in the premier league simply because they couldn’t field players who were not from Tsoelike or Letloepe,” he said.

As a card carrying member of Bantu FC, Khetsi is not happy with the state of the club after Bantu failed to defend their Vodacom premiership title which has since been won by Matlama.

“I want to congratulate Matlama FC for being Lesotho VPL champions of the 2021/2022 season,” he said.

“They have shown character and determination. As for Bantu, I can tell all is not well at the club but it is vital for all the stakeholders to go back to the drawing board and make amendments where necessary,” he said.

Calvin Motekase