Ithier arrived in Mzansi in 1999 from Mauritius to join Santos FC after he had impressed in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Bafana Bafana.
Remarkably, Ithier was already 34 when he joined Santos yet still went on to score 71 goals in 203 starts for the Cape Town club before retiring just before he turned 41 in 2006.
He remains one of the most interesting stories of foreign players who came to play football in the PSL, and reveals why he never joined one of the big three teams.
"My first job was as a police officer," the 55-year-old tells snl24.com/kickoff in an exclusive interview as he explains how he came to the country.
"I went for police training in Mauritius and that's where I started playing for a police team. They had a team in the first division league there. When I left the police that's when I joined a semi-pro club, Sunrise FC.
"I earned approximately R4 000 if I convert it into rands. I then played for the Mauritius national team and after a game that we played against Bafana that's when Santos were looking for a striker. And then they saw me against Bafana in 1998 and I came here in 1999.
"In my first season I got an offer from Joburg, from big clubs there. But then it was a challenge for me because to move from Mauritius to Cape Town in the first place was hard because I was married with two young kids. It was a bit of a risk moving from Mauritius to Cape Town.
"The kids were quite small and very young. I mean to move them again after one season from Cape Town to Joburg, I didn't want to take that risk of moving school, moving the whole family. So that was the main reason why I didn't want to move away from Cape Town again.
"A few agents were telling me that big clubs in Joburg were looking for a goalscorer. So I think Pirates was one of them, according to that agent who contacted me. Of course when you score goals everybody wants you, right?"
Ithier, who helped Santos win the BobSave SuperBowl with Clive Barker, the PSL title under Gordon Igesund, as well as the BP Top 8 and an Absa Cup with Boebie Solomons at the helm says his intelligence is what set him apart from his peers.
"Physically I wasn't the quickest but I think the intelligence of play and the speed of thought and the anticipation of the game, that's what I was very good at," he says.
"I retired in 2006 and coached Santos until 2010/11, around there. At that time I was 40 turning 41."
Today the Cape Town-based former football star works in tourism to put food on the table, and also runs his own football academy.
"We've got ourselves a tourism company, basically she [my wife] manages it, she started it while I was still playing and then it grew into a big business. Now we've got a guesthouse and everything. Otherwise me, I've got a soccer academy running."
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