Tributes pour in for Matete

MASERU – The football fraternity is mourning the untimely death of Seephephe ‘Mochini’ Matete, a man regarded by many as one of the greatest players to have played football in the Kingdom of Lesotho.

Matete lost his battle against lung cancer on Sunday after he was admitted to a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa, recently, according to a family spokesman, Nkau Matete.

Matete was speaking to Lesotho Television on Monday.

The 65-year-old made a name for himself playing for Matlama in the 1970s in a career that spanned more than two decades. He also had short spells playing in South Africa in the mines and for Bloemfontein Celtic.

He started playing for his country as a 17-year-old during the qualifiers of the 1974 World Cup. After hanging his boots in 1993, Matete immediately moved into coaching after he was appointed player-coach at his beloved Matlama.

‘Mochini’, as the legendary left footed attacking midfielder was affectionately known, had a love-hate relationship with the country’s most decorated club, but had recently returned to Tse Putsoa as they represented the country in this year’s CAF Champions League.

He also served the government of Lesotho working at the Ministry of Gender, Youth, Sports and Recreation where he worked as a sports organiser, but later moved to the Lesotho Football Association where he started as a coach for its junior teams.

He later moved up the ranks from the Under-17 up to the senior team as well as working as the technical director, which is the senior most technical position in a football organisation.

He and Leslie Notsi are the only coaches to have led the Lesotho Under-20 side Makoanyane XI to the then CAF Youth Championship with Matete having been the first to qualify for a continental tournament in 2005.

Matete also reached the final of the COSAFA Under-20 Championship with Makoanyane XI in 2003. He was the second Lesotho coach after the late April ‘Style’ Phumo to be accredited as a CAF and FIFA instructor.

His last coaching job was with LMPS in the previous season of the Vodacom Premier League, where the club finished in sixth position.

For many who saw Matete during his playing days donning the blue and white of Matlama, he was an iconic player in the same mould as football greats like Jomo Sono in South Africa as well as Diego Maradona in Argentina.

Joang Molapo, a former government minister who was a football player himself, was among many high-profile people in the country who took to social media to mourn the football icon.

“I watched him many times for Matlama and the Lesotho national team. He was an awesome talent and one of the best players this country has ever produced,” Molapo said.

“I played against him a few times; he had a left foot for the ages. Skill, strength, and guile. In 1985, LDF had picked him for some international matches together with Ice Ntsonyana and they arranged a practice match under floodlights at the National Stadium against us as Arsenal.”

The former BNP leader went down the memory lane reminiscing about a match in which LDF had picked Matete to play for them ahead of an international match, but before that they played a friendly match against their now defunct Arsenal.

“Their midfield consisted of Buti Buti Sefali, Mochini, and Ice. Buti Buti and Ice played as the pivots at the base of the midfield while Mochini played in the half space. He was awesome that day and gave Likhetho Mokhathi, Letlotlo and me a master class on midfield play,” Molapo recalls.

“He kept turning away from us and playing in Telephone Seutloali on the left overlapping or finding the runs of Katiso Sekamane in the channels. Litšitso Khali scored a brace for us on that day which awakened a lot of people to his awesome talent but ‘Mochini’ was just out of this world,” he said.

Molapo also posted a picture recalling a match where he was acting as the Minister of Sports and Matete gave him the opportunity to address the Likuena players ahead of a World Cup Qualifier match against Kenya.

“The picture was taken in the dressing room ahead of Kenya vs Lesotho in a World Cup qualifier in Nairobi. He asked me to say a few words to the players before the game and introduced me by saying to them ‘ le mo mamele motho enoa o la ka e bapala nthoena (Listen to him because he played football,” added Molapo.

“Together with Tšeliso Khomari, Thulo Leboela and Likhetho Mokhathi – ‘Mochini’ Matete is among the greatest players Lesotho has ever produced,” he said.

Former LeFA technical director, Leslie Notši, knew Matete very well as he played under him as a player at Matlama and had him under his wing when he started his coaching career at both club level and the national team.

“Yes, he brought me to be his assistant coach at the national under-17 team, but before that, I worked with him at Matlama as his player when he was a player coach and won the league championship in the early 90s,” Notši said.

“He had a very long career as a player because when I was at St. James Primary, he was already a star playing for his school as well as Matlama. I think he received his first national team call-up when he was 17-years old.

“That’s how good he was because we used to carry bags of other senior players that we adored, and he was already a star playing for a senior team.”

LeFA’s Coach Education Officer, Lehlohonolo Thotanyana, who worked with Matete as sports officers at the Ministry of Sports and later reunited at the football governing body, described Matete as a very bubbly personality that was full of jokes.

“I must say, I knew him from a distance until we worked together at the Ministry of Sports, which in those days was under the ministry of tourism in 1993 I think,” Thotanyana recalls.

“When it comes to football, we were working under the late ‘Style’ Phumo as our mentor, where we worked as sports organisers at the ministry and later worked together for LeFA. Matete was the second person in the country after ntate Phumo to be accredited as a FIFA and CAF Instructor.

“I also worked with him as his assistant coach for the Under-20 team that eventually qualified for the Africa Youth Championship in Benin, 2005. His family and football in general have lost a giant. Many of the coaches we have here in the country were groomed by him. He has done a lot for his country,” he said.

Thotanyana feels there are no bigger achievements than serving your country as a technical director as well as becoming a FIFA and CAF instructor as technical experts and believes Matete lived his dream when he occupied the two positions.

“I think the fact that he served LeFA as the technical director and was a CAF and FIFA Instructor, from the technical point of view, those are the topmost milestones or achievements in football,” Thotanyana said.

“Secondly, he was instrumental and led Lesotho Under-20 to the African Youth Championship being the first person to do so. I think those are too distinct milestones and defining moments in his career,” he said

Mikia Kalati