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Mooki's undeniable legendary status at Chiefs

The count of players who have only ever played for Kaizer Chiefs throughout their professional careers fits into the fingers of one hand, and one such is Thabo Mooki.

Nicknamed 'Tsiki-Tsiki', Mooki turned 50 upon the turn of the clock to midnight on Tuesday.

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Finesse is what defined how the former midfield man played his football from the season he made his first team debut in 1994 under Philippe Troussier right through to his last appearance in 2009 with Muhsin Ertugral in charge.

He played 21 games in his first season when domestic football was played according to the calendar year with Chiefs lifting the BP Top 8.

The next silverware was the Coca-Cola Challenge after the competition was turned into a mini-league ahead of the start of the restructuring of domestic football in 1996.

From there, the Rothmans Cup came in consecutive years before the BOB Save Super Bowl as the list of trophies won by Mooki piled up through the Operation Vat Alles era, after which the Soweto giants were league champions in consecutive years.

The Coca-Cola Cup was also won in consecutive years, following which there was the 2006 Absa Cup success.

Mooki then won another three trophies at the club, before calling time on a career that had him voted as the 1996/97 KickOff Footballer of the Season 

His Bafana Bafana caps only went up to three, but he played at the 1998 AFCON finals in Burkina Faso.

He also scored in that hard-to-forget COSAFA Castle Cup 3-2 defeat to Namibia in Windhoek in January 1998 having also won caps at U20 and U23 levels.

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Mooki played all his last seven games in his last season (2008/09) at Chiefs as a substitute with his last being in the infamous 4-3 Nedbank Cup defeat to University of Pretoria.

His contract was not renewed, and he ultimately retired having only ever played for Amakhosi.

At the end of his Glamour Boys stay, he had played 407 games for the club and scored 40 goals.

Proper and unquestionable legendary status at Chiefs!    

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