It might sound strange to most, and be the reason feeding sentiments of those out to push him out, but Vuyo Mere has earned his undisputed legendary standing in the domestic game.
Mere will sweat it out in pre-season for the 2023/24 campaign for what will be his 23rd consecutive season playing professional football in South Africa.
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This is no ordinary feat and has never been reached in the history of the modern day PSL which stretches back to August 1996 which was just years after the country was re-admitted into FIFA.
The confirmation of that Mere will continue at TS Galaxy means the veteran right-back will now play past his 40th birthday having started out as a 17-year-old at Hellenic in the 2001/02 season.
‘Smereza’ joined Galaxy at the beginning of last year after being ditched by Swallows and while his game time minutes have been limited there is no questioning his ability to compete at this level.
Last season, the lad from Bloemfontein only played 230 minutes but his presence in that Galaxy dressing room has been worth more than gold with most of his teammates having been breastfeeding or not even in primary school when he made his PSL debut.
Mere has amazingly walked through the storm of living on the fast lane while at Mamelodi Sundowns through to redefining himself into the man that he is now.
All there is to do in professional football, Mere has done it, be it from trials with Sheffield United in England, winning league titles, cup competitions, playing in the junior national teams, earning Bafana Bafana caps, and even refreshing his career in the First Division where he won promotion with Swallows.
This is a footballer who has grown from being a boy to a man.
Even his club boss Timothy Sukazi was still a law student at the University of Cape Town when his career began under Steve Haupt at Hellenic.
Mere was teammates with Thabo Mngomeni, Naughty Mokoena, Craig Rosslee, and the late Edzai Kasinauyo at Hellenic, then Andre Arendse, Peter Ndlovu, and Mike Manzini at Sundowns, before going on to play for Moroka Swallows and Platinum Stars.
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