It was in the winter of 2006 that Orlando Pirates landed the services of Ethiopian striker Fikru Tefera after Siyabonga Nomvete moved back to Europe while Davies Mwape was offloaded to FC AK.
Serbian coach Milutin Sredojevic had also just arrived at Pirates and had used his influence to lure the striker who had delivered the most goals for him through his spell at St George in Ethiopia.
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This was a match made in heaven for player and coach as the Bucs sought to win silverware after entertaining and coming so near under Kosta Papic in the years before.
Fikru was just 20 years old at the time.
"St. George had been champions while I was with them, so we went to play in the Champions League.
"So that time most Egyptian clubs were interested, and they sent me invitations and air tickets because we had played against clubs from there," says Fikru Tefera talking to KickOff from Addis Ababa.
"ENPPI were keen just like Al Ahly who also went on to be interested in me later when I was now at SuperSport.
"Then in 2006 we had the Kagame club championship tournament in Tanzania and Pitso Mosimane came to watch and was interested in me while he was at SuperSport United.
"However, Micho, who was my coach at the time, told me not to rush because I will go to a bigger club in South Africa which will be the right club for me.
"I listened to Micho and turned down Pitso.
"A few months later Pirates came, and he (Micjo) said this is a big club in Africa to which I said, 'this is what I want'.
"When Pirates came for me, I just said yes before they even finished what they had to say.
"On my first day at Pirates training, I was amazed by the talent I found there from Cheese (Lebohang Mokoena), Duku Duku (Joseph Makhanya), Stiga (Stanton Fredericks) and the special talent of Gift Leremi.
"I signed for Pirates after just a week and after that I told St. George not to ask for anything more than what Pirates was offering to pay for my services.
"I demanded that they accepted whatever Pirates is offering.
"St. George were asking for a lot of money from Pirates, but I warned them against doing that because I will stop playing football.
"I forced my move to Pirates because I had done all I could for St. George, and I told them straight in their faces not to add other things in the deal.
"Look, I was aggressive in telling St. George to accept whatever Pirates wanted to give them for me.
"I don't know how much they were given but it was good money.
"There were arguments, but I eventually left, and they had to be happy to see me leaving because I had done all there was for them.
"At that time my agent was Ivica Stankovic who did a good job along with Micho my coach.
"I chose Pirates despite interest from all these Egyptian clubs.
"Pirates remains one of the biggest clubs that I played for in my career," says Tefera.
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