Thabang Monare is Wits' unsung hero

Coming to terms with not being in the same class as his twin brother, Thabo prepared Thabang Monare for the path he would take to be a South African champion.

The difference then is that he was the one who was ahead after his brother failed Grade 3 while he was promoted. For the most part of his career, the 27-year-old has been the one catching up to his friends.

"I always wanted me and my brother to be together and do things together," Monare said.    

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"I started crying when we were being put in different classes after he failed Grade 3. I couldn't take it because I realised that now I am going to be alone. That phase made me stronger because it made me realise that at some point I had to survive on my own."

That strength was put to the test eight years ago after Monare was released by University of Pretoria while his friends Andile Jali and Aubrey Ngoma stayed and thrived at AmaTuks.

Jali then took a giant step in his career by signing for Orlando Pirates. He went on to win a double treble with the Buccaneers.

"Being released by Tuks gave me a wake-up call," Monare said. "At some point, I was too comfortable there. I had to go and play for FC AK where I wasn't getting paid and the structure wasn't so well for me to learn the hard way.

"I thought of giving up. I sat down and told myself let me just go back home because I am not getting paid. But I had a dream of being a professional footballer. If I went home, then what? I told myself that the only person who can get me out of this situation is me. Sometimes we tend to look at difficult situations and point fingers.

"The first thing that you need to do is look at yourself. Ask yourself, how did I get to this situation? Do I really have to blame anyone or I played a part in getting myself here?

"When you look at yourself, and you are honest, the negatives you'll see are things that you can control. But when you point fingers, then you are going to have a problem."

Monare's honesty and intelligence impressed Jomo Sono. "The Black Prince" gave him the armband at Jomo Cosmos after signing him from FC AK in 2012, captaining Ezenkosi to promotion to the elite league for the 2015/16 season.

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But the club went down after just one season in the premier division.

The stain of being relegated is still with Monare even though he is now part of a Bidvest Wits team that made history by winning the Absa Premiership for the first time in their 96-year history.

"Yes, I am a champion with Wits but my name is still there in the list of people who were relegated with Cosmos," Monare said without any sense of self-pity.

The 27-year-old central midfielder was just putting things into perspective. His road to success has been littered with setbacks. He is here today, however, because he always found a way to bounce back from them. Jali and Ngoma were among the first people to congratulate him after the Clever Boys were confirmed as champions.

"The mistake we make is measuring other people's success with ours," Monare said. "I couldn't look at Aubrey and say that he is there, why I am not there?

"I had to focus on me, wish my friends well, look up to them, look what they are doing and apply it. At the end of the day, my life is my life. I have to focus on what I am facing. We can be friends but I can never walk in Aubrey or Andile's shoes.

"I have my own path, they had their own and then there is the friendship path. But the most important thing is how you handle your own path. My path eventually led me to being a champion even though there were many potholes."

With Jali a seasoned Bafana campaigner while Ngoma and Monare are yet to be called up, "it would be nice if the three of us can reunite on the field for the national team".