Helder 'Mano-Mano' Muianga was as solid a defender as they will ever come through all his playing career, which peaked during his time in South Africa.
Mano-Mano was signed at Manning Rangers in 1999 from Costa do Sol after being spotted at the COSAFA Castle Cup.
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From there, he went on to play for two clubs in Limpopo – Black Leopards and Dynamos – where he had to deal with multiple challenges.
"With Rangers, it was arranged by my agent Sergio Simao, who spoke to Rangers coach Gordon Igesund," discloses Mano-Mano.
"In the end, I had one training session and went straight to the office to sign afterwards.
"They were basically waiting for me because what they had seen on television was enough.
"I had another option of going to AmaZulu in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe and I remember they sent me everything to travel, but I chose Manning Rangers.
"It almost happened that I went to Zimbabwe.
"The money at Rangers was okay because as soon as I arrived, I managed to buy a car after having left my previous car with my cousin in Maputo.
"It was a VW Golf III GTi, which was an in thing at the time.
"Unfortunately, after Gordon left Rangers for Orlando Pirates, it didn't go well for me, so I had to leave for Black Leopards in 2002.
"It was Gavin Hunt who wanted me at Leopards, but when I arrived, he had just left for Moroka Swallows.
"However, David Thidiela (Leopards chairman) still made the effort to come and meet me there at the airport in Durban to seal the deal because Gavin had spoken highly of me.
"A lot of guys attacked me for joining Leopards as they said I was going to the bush.
"In my mind, I told myself that I'm a footballer and I'm going there to play soccer.
"So, I decided to go to Leopards and the plus was that I was being paid better money than what I was getting at Rangers, so it was a good move.
"Leopards was a good time because I also got to play in the Charity Shield.
"However, it was crazy because I got into trouble with Thidiela because of the Portuguese coach (Amaldo Salvado) who had worked in Mozambique.
"That guy was strict, especially with players that didn't want to train well and yet expected to play.
"So, what happened is that he wouldn't want to include those players in the matchday squad, but Thidiela didn't want that those that he wanted to play were not in the team.
""Thidiela used to says to me, 'Tell this white man that this is my team. I pay him, so he must listen to me'.
"But Salvado had his own mentality and was stubborn, and I got into problems with Thidiela because I was defending the coach.
"So, I left Leopards because I was on the wrong side of Thidiela and spoke the same language as the coach.
"The problem was that players like Matare (Chris Netshidzivhe) were not performing at training and had bad behaviour, but Thidiela liked to see them play because they were his boys.
"Salvado would insist on not playing these guys because they would come to training drunk or not come at all," says Mano-Mano, who then moved to Dynamos.
"That was the worst decision that I made.
"We had a good team with experienced players like Alex Bapela, Lefa Gqosha, Gerald Raphahlela, and Joel Seroba, but there were too many issues.
"However, I enjoyed working with Steve Komphela when he was the coach.
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"Steve amazed me as a coach, but it was unfortunate they didn't keep him for long.
"The problem was that some players were getting paid their salaries, while some were not, which is why I took up my case with the Players' Union," concludes Mano-Mano.