Through the two years that Davi Rancan spent at Moroka Swallows, he is still remembered as having been the pony-tailed defender who played with flair and won the 2009 Nedbank Cup.
Rancan was equally comfortable playing as a central defender like he as a holding midfielder.
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However, behind the scenes, Rancan had a myriad of confrontations with the club's German coach Rainer Zobel in matters relating to the position that he should play.
The Brazilian insisted on wanting to play at the back while the German demanded that he switches to midfield.
"That German guy wanted me to play as a holding midfielder," Rancan tells KickOff.com.
"He came up to me and said, 'you have good passes, so I need you to play in midfield and take the ball forward because your forward passes are effective plus I feel your technique is suited there than at the back where you just have to kick the ball forward'.
"This guy was really convincing in wanting me to play as a holding midfield, but I never liked it and that is the truth.
"I wanted to play at the back, and I did tell him about this.
"It then became a case of me telling him that I don't mind playing one or two games there but if it means all the games then I don't like it because a holding midfielder has to put in more running.
"I told him that it is not like I don't like running but I like to play at the back and organise.
"The coach still insisted that I'm important as a holding midfielder for him and if I don't want to play there then I should go to the bench.
"It was then that I told him 'don't worry, I will sit on the bench'.
"The trouble for him was that the president and the fans were put pressure on him because the previous year (2009) we won the Nedbank Cup, and I was the best defender of the tournament and nominated for player of the season.
"So, the German guy was under pressure to play me but then along the way, I got an offer to go to Finland (FC Inter), a move which was easy for me since I have an EU passport (Portuguese) and I got to play in the Europa League qualifiers.
"I had problems with the German coach," says Rancan.
After his time in Finland, Rancan went on to Independiente Medellin in Colombia after which he then moved to Clube Atletico Penapolense in Brazil where he retired in 2014.
"Colombia is just as close as South Africa to my heart but then when I came back home for my last vacation while in Colombia, I saw how old my mom, dad, and grandmother had become so I started to think about my family more.
"Yes, I had played football and made a paying career out of it but I was touched by the need to be closer to my family, so I went to Penapolense.
"But then after seven months at Penapolense, I discovered I had a severe back problem and since 2015 I have been on treatment and have done my second operation.
"I have 18 stitches on my back now and some days I feel pain.
"Towards the end of my career, I started working with BLB Agency and we have since done many transfers including a 2-million-euro (approx. R40 million) transfer of a player from Sao Paulo to Japan.
"We have also sent a goalkeeper from Fortaleza on a 1 million euro (approx. R20 million) to Ukraine.
"The company has been there for 25 years, so we have done extensive work and my next target is the South African market," says Rancan.