Royal AM president Shawn ‘Ma’ Mkhize has sent a message to people who doubt the footballing skills of her son Andile Mpisane after the chairman of the club recently also joined the first-team training.
Mpisane, who has previously been lauded as a ‘skilful’ player by former coaches at Royal AM and Royal Eagles, made three appearances in the second-tier for the club but has yet to make the pitch in the top-flight since they bought the status of Bloemfontein Celtic.
The 21-year-old is youngest chairman in the Premier Soccer League and he made his professional debut in December 2018 when he came off the bench for Royal Eagles in a win over Witbank Spurs.
He played sparely in the 2020/21 and 2021/22 seasons, as he had seemingly shifted his focus from the pitch to the boardroom, however, this campaign he seems determined to make a comeback on the pitch.
He captained the DStv Diski Challenge side of Royal AM against AmaZulu recently and was also named on the bench for the senior team in September, when the club lost 1-0 to Richards Bay before taking to the field in the Macufe Cup win over Kaizer Chiefs.
Many have questioned whether he has what it takes to actually run our for the Thwili Thwala first team, but MaMkhize explained that her son didn’t start playing football at Royal AM and already impressed at youth levels at AmaZulu.
“He would have on one condition if I didn’t stop him. Andile was playing for AmaZulu FC in his development stage. He wouldn’t have entered AmaZulu if he didn’t have talent,” she told Andile Ncube on Sports Night Amplified when asked whether Mpisane would play if he wasn’t the chairman of the club.
“If you look at the people that scouts for AmaZulu they only look for talent. Andile at his youngest age, he was already playing for AmaZulu.
“So he would have [been a player] because he would’ve grown from AmaZulu. Maybe he would’ve been an AmaZulu player, not even a Royal AM player.”
Do you think Mpisane has what it takes to play in the PSL?
