For all the thrills that Helder Pelembe enjoyed when he started earning money from football as a teenager after being promoted to the first team aged 16, he doesn't wish the same for his kids.
Pelembe was able to knit together a career that took off at Ferroviario de Nampula in Mozambique to Portugal then South Africa where he played for Orlando Pirates and Bloemfontein Celtic in between short spells at Roses United and Baroka.
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His was a career that started with so much hope in the horizon only to end in despair back at the club where it all started for him.
"When I first went to the national team, I was 17 and found myself competing with Tico-Tico and Dario Monteiro," Pelembe highlights the sweet memories of his career.
Pelembe has now been retired since 2020 and is still only 35.
"My other highlight was that I was 16 when I first played for the senior team at Ferroviario where I competed with big names Chicinho, Patricio, Danito.
"Another highlight was that my first goal in the national qualified Mozambique to the CHAN finals.
"To define highlights is difficult but I appreciate Pirates a lot hence I told you that it was a dream come true to play for Pirates.
"As a child, I knew Pirates, but I never expected that I would play for Pirates one day.
"I heard about Pirates from when Jomo Sono played for the club, so I always admired this club which has become a part of the history of my life.
"I never knew that one day I will play for this club.
"As a kid, Pirates was the team that I wanted to win when they played Kaizer Chiefs," says Pelembe while disclosing why he came to stop playing football after his return to Mozambique.
"It was a difficult decision for me to stop but after coming back from South Africa I had to make another move in my life which has taken me to being the businessman that I am now.
"Mozambican football is not appreciated much so it was from that space that I decided to stop because I didn't want to be ridiculous.
"I can't even encourage my son to play soccer here hence I decided to stop playing and do other things.
"They care less about football here in Mozambique and there are no investments in the game here.
"Soccer fields are being destroyed to build other things here and there is no more strong schools sports like when I was a kid.
"So, even though my kids are capable of playing I don't see them proceeding like I did because the opportunities are less which makes me doubt," says Pelembe while looking back at how he came to play in South Africa.
"I came to Roses United after playing against Bafana Bafana in a friendly match in Mbombela just after the 2010 World Cup.
"Jazzy Queen (Harold Legodi) saw me there, but I first went to Portugal where I didn't cope with the strategies that I was obliged to do.
"So, Jazzy Queen asked that I come to Bloemfontein where I joined Roses United for two years but there was money to sustain the club under the chairman Max Tshabalala.
"I then went to Jazzy Queen's academy from where Pirates saw me and that is where I then lived my dream," he notes adding that veteran winger Elias Pelembe is not his blood relative though they share the same surname and are close friends.
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