Fortune Makaringe

“The most important thing that we always remind one another about is that we play for Orlando Pirates and we always play to win.”

“The good thing is that we have been giving top performances”

“We always go out there to play to win and I am happy that they are starting to realise that it is a whole journey and that we are going through a process and we need to stick together, whether we win or we lose.”

“It's for us to actually keep that in mind and always play for them because we always play for them.”

“We had to play to get to the final so we could defend our title.”

“We therefore needed to go out there and we needed our people to come in numbers to give us that morale boost, to make sure that we got to the final.”

“But all of that comes with experience, of course,”

“I guess there’s a lot that could’ve been done better since we all had a fair share.”

“So I’m very sober in my thinking, but we’ve seen these things happen before”

“But if I was not given that opportunity, I don’t think I would have learnt those lessons anywhere else.”

“I’m less emotional and have a thicker skin.”

“I am a better person than before I arrived at Pirates.”

“The lessons I learnt at Pirates shaped me and made me strong.”

“There were young players who were still coming up, and we could not be bad role models”

“What I can say is you have to be an example to the other guys. Everyone has to be an example.”

“There were moments where we were under pressure, but we could still behave in a proper way, to say, ‘let’s not rush, let’s not commit ourselves too early.”

“One lesson that maybe one took from the Pirates team is patience.”

“At Pirates, the motto is to win all. We didn’t do permutations. Stakes are always high.”

“Leaving was the best option at that time, but I am very grateful for how they helped me develop that hunger to win.”

“I learnt a lot from Orlando Pirates. From coach [Jose] Riviero, I also learned a lot because they are a big team”