Former Mamelodi Sundowns star Surprise Ralani has spoken out on his sour exit from Chloorkop.
Ralani spent 18 months at Sundowns having joined in January 2022 and left in July 2023. He won with them two league titles and the Nedbank Cup.
Ralani disclosed that after his injury, he felt marginalised.
Despite assurances from the coach that his contract would be extended beyond the initial six-month period, he found himself on the sidelines and his body language was constantly criticized by Coach Rulani Mokwena.
RALANI OPENS UP ON SUNDOWNS STAY
“So, I’m actually also going home for the short break that we had in December after the Carling Cup,” Ralani said.
“I do my rehab and I come back around January and I’m still injured. They working with me on the side and everything.
“Coach is still in my corner, ‘Hey, don’t worry, we keeping you, don’t worry we keeping you’.
“Out of the blue I’m not playing anymore even when I return from the injury. Nothing is being said to me.
“And players are coming to me and saying, ‘Hey’. Even Mshishi [Themba Zwane] came to me one time and said, ‘Surprise, whatever you’ve done, just go and apologize we need you’. And I’m like to Mshishi, ‘But what did I do? I don’t know of anything that I did’.
“So, there was a time that the coach [Mokwena] also called me in and said he’s not happy with my body language and stuff like that but never a thing of my performance in training how I train, if I’m lazy anything like that, nothing like that. Just body language.
“And then I said okay, maybe sometimes I can agree to this because I’m disappointed that I’m not playing anymore. Not that I have something against anyone, maybe the players or management, nothing like that! But I’m just disappointed with myself.
“Because this is not how I know myself. I mean every team that I’ve played for, and this is how I explained to him, every team that I’ve played for, I carried.
“I’m not being cocky or anything. I was the main guy in every team that I played for.”
