The UP-Tuks left winger, Richard Moremi, boasts with one of the most unique records in Varsity Football and that is being possibly the only player, or one of a mere few, to have played in every tournament since its inception in 2013.
This tournament is hopefully not going to be his last. If nothing unforeseen happens, he might also play next year as he is only turning 25 in 2019.
The postgraduate student in BSc construction management is not sure how many games he has played for UP-Tuks but guess at a rough estimate guess he would have donned the coveted “Striped jersey” at least in 50 games.
Surprisingly he does not consider any of the three Varsity finals UP-Tuks had won as a personal highlight.
“Don’t get me wrong. Each of the finals we won was special as there is something to it to bring glory to UP-Tuks, but the best game I ever played was in 2014 against Northwest Pukke. I could do absolutely nothing wrong. Every skill I tried worked. I think if Northwest had not equalised in the dying minutes I would have been in contention for the man of the match award.”
Moremi admits to not being the most prolific goal scorer but prides himself on often being the one that sets up the goal scoring movement for UP-Tuks. Over the last six years, he has also fine-tuned the art of tying up the opposing defence with his nimble footwork.
According to Moremi he actually had retired after last year’s final, but due to his love-hate relationship with football, he reconsidered his decision.
“I think football might actually be bad for me at the moment. I was working as a project manager. It was a pretty decent job. I only needed six months more of work experience before I could register for the board. However, from a personal perspective, I was not happy. The drawback was that I could not play football. It got to me.
“In May I decided to make a comeback because as far as I am concerned, I still had unfinished business out on the field. I don’t want to have any regrets later on wondering what could have been. I can always pursue my career once I finally stop playing football.
“I would like to believe that there is still a slight chance of me getting a professional contract. But for now I am just enjoying myself,” said Moremi who as an 18-year-old was contracted by SuperSport.
The Varsity defending champions, UP-Tuks, was not off to the best of starts losing 2-1 to TUT last week. Tomorrow they play away against UJ.
Moremi is confident that the team will give a good account of themselves.
“Football is about moments. You just have to look as to how we lost the game against TUT to realise that. Had we scored first the whole complexion of the game could have changed. We, unfortunately, made one mistake and that changed our entire approach to the game.
“Luckily our coach Tlisane Motaung is an astute strategist. He takes something positive from every game we play and is constantly looking for ways as to how we can improve. I can honestly say that UP-Tuks will only get better and better as the Varsity Tournament progress.”
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