Compact Cup: 'It's important to the players'

Mashego will be featuring for Coastal United FC when they take on Dinaledi FC at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday.

"At Bafana Bafana, they choose players based on the performance, in this competition, it's the same thing because they chose players from performances from their respective teams.

2020/21: Bradley Grobler (SuperSport United, 16 goals) – still at SuperSport United

2019/20: Peter Shalulile (Highlands Park) & Gabadinho Mhango (Orlando Pirates, 16 goals each) – Shaulile is now at Mamelodi Sundowns while Mhango is still with Pirates

2018/19: Mwape Musonda (Black Leopards, 16 goals) – now at Swallows FC

2017/18: Percy Tau (Mamelodi Sundowns) & Rodney Ramagalela (Polokwane City, 11 goals each) – Tau is now at Al Ahly while Ramagalela is at Chippa United

2016/17: Lebogang Manyama (Cape Town City, 13 goals) – now at Kaizer Chiefs

2015/16: Collins Mbesuma (Mpumalanga Black Aces, 14 goals) – now at Pretoria Callies

2014/15: Moeketsi Sekola (Free State Stars, 14 goals) – back at Free State Stars

2013/14: Bernard Parker (Kaizer Chiefs, 10 goals) – still at Kaizer Chiefs

2012/13: Katlego Mashego (Moroka Swallows, 13 goals) – retired, most recently "assisting" at Tshwane South College

2011/12: Siyabonga Nomvethe (Moroka Swallows, 20 goals) – retired, assistant coach at AmaZulu

Scroll through the gallery to see where the last 10 winners of the Lesley Manyathela Golden Boot award are now

"It's important to the players because remember we will only get to play our next league match in February.

"The Compact Cup is better than playing in your club's friendly because this one is competitive. It's what we needed as players. This has been the longest break ever."

Mashego says the Warriors are focusing more on lifting the Cup and not only on tomorrow's game.

"Yesterday we had our first training session and everything just clicked together.

"We arrived on Wednesday, then started training on Thursday. So today we are going to have our second session.

"Everyone in our team is a big name, the fact they were chosen from their respective teams, shows they do have this thing in them.

"Team spirit is high. It doesn't even show we are from different teams.

"This competition doesn't favour anyone for the fact that we all playing in the same league.

"We are winning the cup, we can't abandon our teams while they are preparing for the Nedbank Cup and league matches just to come here to add numbers."

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