Pirates fans pushed Tito out? ‘I was under pressure… My family wanted me to quit!’

Orlando Pirates midfielder Patrick Maswanganyi has now revealed he was forced out of the club.

The 28-year-old was among the players who left the Soweto giants at the beginning of the season. Bahraini outfit Al Khaldiya convinced him to seek another challenge, an invitation that Tito gladly accepted.

Maswanganyi has since explained what made him make that decision despite being a key player for Abdeslam Ouaddou’s men.

Going to Bahrain felt great

“I’ve always asked the chairman for me to leave the club because I felt like it was the right moment for me to leave, and we spoke about it for a very long time about me leaving the club,” Tito told SAFJA.

“And I felt that was going to help me in terms of me being myself and also me being able to regain my confidence, because sometimes I would feel really down and I always had to explain to them I wish to play for another team.

“Going to Bahrain that was the only team that I had that I felt it was great and it was a better opportunity for me to go there. I needed to be in a space where I felt I could be myself again and also I needed peace, I was looking for peace in which way when I was in South Africa I couldn’t have but for me I needed peace, that’s why I went there.”

It was tough for my family

“Everyone knows that I was under a lot of pressure, not really pressure but my family was suffering from the comments that I was getting from the [social] media I’d say,” Maswanganyi further explained.

“So they would see those kind of things and they wanted me to quit football. But for me it was something whereby I would understand because I’m a football player, these things happen. But for them it was really tough for them.

“I had to make sure that my family is protected from all those things. I just felt like that if I would move far away from the country things would get better in terms of their [mental] health.

“And also myself to be in a space whereby I stopped thinking a lot, because I had a lot of thoughts if I’m good or bad but when it comes to family it’s something where I need to make sure that I protect and I make decisions that help me and also my family to feel good and I also feel good,” the South Africa international concluded.