Surprise Ralani has opened up about his departure from Mamelodi Sundowns, admitting to feeling confused by his lack of playing time towards the end of his tenure.
The 37-year-old attacker, who spent 18 months at Sundowns and won multiple trophies, including two league titles, left the club upon the expiry of his contract to join Cape Town Spurs.
In an interview with Andile Ncube on Metro FM’s Sports Nite Amplified, Ralani explained that after recovering from an injury, he found himself consistently excluded from the squad. He stated that coach Rulani Mokwena cited concerns about his body language, despite previously assuring him that he would remain at the club beyond his final six months.
Ralani recounted returning home for a short break in December after the Carling Cup, implying this marked a turning point in his situation.
“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,” he said.