Former Kaizer Chiefs winger Mandla Masango has remained coy on whether he has officially retired from professional football at the age of 33.
Masango had the world at his feet back in 2015 as a regular in the Bafana squad and having earned a move to Denmark with Randers on the back of an excellent league-winning season with Amakhosi.
However, after scoring seven goals in 32 games in the Danish Superliga, he looked to force a move away from the club and ended up moving out on loan to SuperSport United for the second half of the 2016/17 season.
That was the last campaign of his professional career and his 22 caps for Bafana. When he won the Nedbank Cup with Matsatsansa under Stuart Baxter, few would have predicted he would never be seen on the pitch again.
“I’ve been around, I’ve been around,” he said when asked what he’s been doing since he last played professional football back in 2017.
“I’ve been in the business space, I can’t really say much about my business, that’s personal stuff. I think you will find out [what happened] in the book I’m writing.
“I’m far from completing the book but once it’s complete, you will have the first copy.”
When asked whether that’s the end of Masango and South African football he stated it could never be the case as it’s the profession that made him who he is today.
However, he stopped short of elaborating on what the future holds for him, by insinuating a tell-all book will be released over many of the unanswered questions of his career that looked headed for much greater heights.
“I’m not lost in football, I’ll never be lost in football, it’s my first love. So I will never be lost to football,” he said.
“But I don’t think I will come back in a capacity of coaching, no. I don’t aspire to be a coach, that’s not my field – but I’m not lost to football. I’m here, you never know, I might play, I might not. It’s life, only God knows what will happen tomorrow.
“I don’t have any regrets, truly speaking. I don’t have any regrets or grudges, nothing negative in my life. Football has given me this wonderful life that I’m cherishing now, I’m living proof of that and I owe my life to football.
“Even if God forbid I pass on tomorrow, people will always remember me as a footballer, they will always remember me as a brand as a footballer.”
Masango scored 14 goals and registered 11 assists in 124 games for the Soweto giants before making the move to Europe at the age of 24.
