View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Soccer Laduma (@soccer_laduma)

Lorch: The Chiefs fan who failed trials at Ajax and Tuks

When Thembinkosi Lorch makes his debut for Mamelodi Sundowns, he will have played for two of the Big Three in domestic football but not the club he supported growing up – Kaizer Chiefs.

Lorch has opted for an improved package at Sundowns after finding a way out at Pirates six months before the expiry of his contract.

READ | Official: Bucs star joins Sundowns on Deadline Day

Being at Sundowns will provide him with the opportunity to finally win the DStv Premiership and have a genuine push to win the Champions League while seeking another bite in the Nedbank Cup.

Yet, through targeting major trophies, Lorch will do having not had it all smooth in his career.

Born in Bloemfontein as the first child to both his parents who have since separated, Lorch attended Brebner High School on a scholarship and then moved to Ficksburg in 2010 to stay with his father.

Lorch's father – who was involved with tenders, owned a SAB League team named Mountain Eagles from where Morena Ramoreboli recruited him to Maluti FET College.

However, before all this happened, there was the frustration of travelling all the way to Cape Town where he didn't make the cut in Ajax Cape Town's Under-17 team with local boys being preferred ahead of him.

lorch 

Then through during the time when University of Pretoria played in the DStv Premiership, Lorch found no luck after getting a run during trials.

This meant Maluti was the opportunity for him in the ABC Motsepe League where he spent two years plus another two playing in the first division after they were promoted. 

While it was Orlando Pirates who then signed him in 2015 with Screamer Tshabalala at the forefront, but was loaned to Cape Town All Stars and then Chippa United before making his debut for the Bucs.     

The attacker explained what transpired in a previous interview with KickOff. 

"The time when they wanted to loan, I didn't want to go especially to a place so far away like Cape Town. 

"I wasn't impressed at that time because I felt why the hell are they loaning me out without having at least given me time to show what I am all about.

"What was worse was this loan to a team in Cape Town, I preferred to be loaned to another club closer to Jozi.   

"It was actually my dad who convinced me to go to Cape Town where I was lucky to have met coach Dan Malesela. 

"I didn't want to go to Cape Town because it's a place that feels like another country and I would struggle to settle there, especially the kind of football played by first division teams there," Lorch told this publication in one of his previous interviews. 

2018/19 - Thembinkosi Lorch struck 9 times in the

Kaizer Chiefs had always been the team that he supported growing up which is why his father had hoped that he would land at Naturena.

"It is not like my dad wanted me to sign for Chiefs because the truth of the matter is that Chiefs just didn't want me at that moment.

"My dad is a Chiefs fan just like I also supported Chiefs growing up, so he had a dream that I get to play for Chiefs.  

READ | Bafana's massive plus factor against Morocco at AFCON

"That is just how far it went though I must admit that along the way I had a feeling of regret about why I had signed for Pirates just like many other players.

"I never thought that this opportunity of getting game-time like I am doing now would arrive, but then God has his own way," said Lorch at the time as he got to impress at Pirates. 

Comments