‘He showed me some love,’ that’s how French legend Patrick Vieira revived the career of Lebo Mothiba

All Bafana Bafana striker Lebo Mothiba needed was some tender loving care and he found that in abundance from club coach and French legend Patrick Vieira. 

Vieira arrived at Mothiba’s Ligue 1 side RC Strasbourg in July and the former Arsenal, Juventus, Inter Milan and Man City superstar reignited his passion for the game after three injury ravaged seasons. 

Vieira, who had coaching stints with Manchester City juniors, New York City (US), Nice (France) and Crystal Palace (England), instilled confidence in Mothiba who has returned to Bafana Bafana since 2019. 

“We spoke, some of the strikers were leaving and the club was recruiting new young players. He told me that because I have been at the club for a number of years and I know the league, he wanted me to stay,” said Mothiba as Bafana prepared to take on Namibia in their international friendly on Saturday at Orlando Stadium. 

“He promised to give me confidence and game time because he believed in me and the qualities that I have like keeping the ball and making those runs behind the defence. 

“He said that’s what he needed from me, from there we did preseason and he gave me that chance. He showed me some love.” 

Mothiba said Vieira gets along very well with all the players. 

“He is a legend and obviously everyone knows Patrick Vieira, he is a great coach, he is calm and chilled like coach Hugo Broos. He doesn’t like shouting, he is humble, he is kind and he has a good relationship with the players. 

“He knows me because he came to South Africa in 2010 and I was playing for the Diambars Academy and he was part of it. When he came to RC Strasbourg he knew me. 

It has been almost four years since Mothiba turned out for Bafana but he never feared for his international future because he worked hard to regain full fitness. 

“I am always positive, I never think negative things because what destroys most of the players is when they start thinking negative things. If I started thinking like that (worried about my international career), I was going to quit playing for Strasbourg. 

“I was going to decide to go somewhere at a lower league, I remained positive because I knew that if you stay positive, work hard, you will come back to the real performance. 

“That is what I did, but the most important thing is that you always have to have good people around you. You need to have people that motivate you, people that push you, people that will always be there. 

“It was like that for me at Strasbourg, I had coaches, players who were always there for me. Even if sometimes I felt like this injury will never go away and I will never come back, they were always there urging me to stay positive. 

“It's always a pleasure to come back to South Africa and the national to represent my country and I am very happy. It was not easy with the injury that I had but my knee has healed and I am feeling much better. 

“In three years I have never had preseason, this was the first time in this period I had preseason with RC Strasbourg. Pre-season went well and I am happy to be back in South Africa with the group.”