Sianda Kolo looks just finished. The South African stopper who arrived at Hapoel Tel Aviv last summer, as the one who completed the foreign situation of Moshe Sinai and Nir Klinger, made a serious mistake when he came down to a completely unnecessary tackle at the feet of William Agada and caused a 2-2 penalty by the Reds against Hapoel Haifa. Raz Stein, his teammate today, completed the work and set up a tie at Bloomfield after Omri Altman’s double. Even two big defensive actions that prevented additional goals by Hapoel Haifa did not comfort him.
Hapoel Tel Aviv is back from the third closure of the State of Israel, with the new face in the squad. It so wanted to come back with a victory and embark on a new path, but the mistake of his voice clouded that game for him, even though it did symbolize the Reds’ rise this season. Only once in nine rounds and accumulated 16 points, on the way to widening the gap from the red line to three points now.
“It has hardly happened to me in my career, this may be the second time, but it’s probably the dumbest mistake I’ve ever made,” the aching stopper told his teammates about the guilt he had after the game. His voice took it hard. It was only after a day or two that he regained his composure in the Khodorov complex, and mostly returned to work hard, preparing vigorously for every game (including requiring tactical details on every attacking player he meets in the Premier League to be prepared for all the strong features and relevant data). In fact, continue his big comeback season.
Only in the last game, in 0: 1 against Hapoel Beer Sheva, his voice broke all its indices this season, with over 80% success in air and ground fouls, and there was a very active game at Turner Stadium, where the host tried her best to equalize the result against Hapoel Tel Aviv in its battle for the top playoff, but without success – not least thanks to him.
It took him a while. On the face of it it seems not really noticeable, due to the fact that it is not really noticeable in the statistical lines. Hapoel explains this by saying that he is “the type of player who knows where to stand to snatch and rescue and because he is less likely to get into fights, it is a matter of experience”. In addition, Klinger first put him together as a back-to-back midfielder, as he has played little in his career, while previously playing as a lone back-up midfielder, a sort of third brake, while the coach always prefers to play with two, one more defensive and one more offensive.
It was less suited to his voice, which was ready for the challenge of learning his new style in midfield, but returned to play in his original position as a stopper, and slowly began to flourish, until he became a red defense stronghold along with Eddie Gottlieb. Recently, he has been doing it alongside Iyad Abu Abid, as together they make Gottlieb’s significant loss less and less noticeable for the team. Looking back, even regardless of the failures with the weak foreigners who came before the start of the season, Kolo, who came to Hapoel through his agent Idan Ben Abu and Scout Shai Atas, is the most significant acquisition the Reds made last summer – a bright spot in a very difficult, professional and managerial period.
Return to national uniform
As he improves this season, he also received a renewed summons for the South African team ahead of the games against Ghana and Sudan in the qualifiers for the African Championship 2021, a summons that comes three years after the previous one, and this is good news for him, on the verge of fulfilling a dream, after very difficult periods in his career. And to understand the magnitude of the comeback, one has to dive into the very intriguing past of this wonderful brake, who has already made 7 international appearances in the past, served as team captain and scored one goal, and may not even have reached the peak of his career.
“Sianda has not improved at all, he is just finally getting back to himself, his career is back on track and who knows where else you will end up,” they told him this week at Hapoel. So regarding the track, looking 11 years back, to the beginning of the previous decade, presents a completely different picture about the career of Kolo, the young brake of local Melody Sundowns, who was called up to the senior team at 18 and included in the host squad three months before the 2010 World Cup, but did not survive The latest screenings.
Stoichkov recommended to Barcelona
That year, he had already become a household name in scout books across Europe, due to his great talent and impressive figures as a stopper, and also, quite a bit, due to his then-Sundance coach, one, Hristo Stoichkov. The legendary former Bulgarian footballer, ex-Barcelona great of the 90s, took his voice under his wing and wanted to help him on his way to the top, and it almost happened. At least four times.
First was none other than Barcelona, in its ranks the brakeman tried his luck. His coach at DRAF, who always has good relations with the Catalan club with which he is so identified, recommended his voice, which came to be tested in the ranks of Barça B. After impressing the professional team, and it was decided to sign him a contract where he will try to make his way to the senior team through the reserve. The change of presidents and everything went wrong.
It is quite symbolic that in the same week that his voice returns to the DRAF team, and returns his career to the track, Joan Laporta, the same one who was president while his voice was tested at Barça and who replaced him with Sandro Rossi, who arrived and together with the club’s new staff decided to cancel all The plans to start all over again in the summer of 2010, returned this week to the presidency of Catalonia.
Wenger stared, Atletico had already submitted a contract
The move to Barcelona was unsuccessful, but his voice went on to another top club with the aim of getting a contract. Arsenal were on the line, and Arsene Wenger was impressed. After another trial period in London, the legendary French coach of the Gunners gave the green light to attach the brake to the reserve team as well, and this time too it was a disappointment for him. This time, prior to signing for Arsenal, he did not receive a work permit in England as he did not have time to make enough international appearances.
And now comes an offer that was placed on Sundowns’ table at the time, an offer that was rejected and completely changed the continuation of his voice career. In 2011 Atletico Madrid sent a contract and just waited for the South African club to approve the terms and fly the brake to the Spanish capital. This time, too, it was Stoichkov who pushed his voice, this time through the players’ agents and former players who played with him on the Bulgarian national team, Lucho Tanev and Lubu Panev, along with his South African agent Paul Mitchell.
Atletico offered the loan with an option to buy for 600,000 euros, according to achievement clauses. 30,000 euros for a start, an additional 15,000 if he plays 10 games in the reserve team, 30 if he does 30. An additional 50,000 euros if he joins the senior team and plays 10 games for Diego Simeone who began his glorious term as coach that continues to this day with the Colchoneros . 100,000 if he will hold 30 games. Sections of summons to the national team would also entitle his team to additional sums, and it would also retain a handsome percentage of his player card. But Sundowns refused and was only willing to sell the player immediately. The heart of his voice was broken, his career received a fatal blow, but his spirit was not yet, nor did his Bulgarian mentor give up.
The good friends supported, ex Hapoel recommended
A year later, he was sold for the same 600,000 euros to the Russian Rostov, the one with whom Stoichkov left his post shortly before, as the assistant president. Kolo spent three seasons in the cold league (until he was not paid for several months, sued Rostov and was released from the club by FIFA), learned to speak Russian, uses the language today to communicate better on the pitch with Gottlieb (and also with Nino the housekeeper and Alex the cleaner of Khodorov complex), but in the team it was not enough.Colo, who was called up to his team until 2013, waited for the next opportunity five years later, in 2018, and is now returning to it.
In the meantime, he managed to return to the not-so-bad money in South Africa’s big teams, and signed with Kaiser Chips, where he collaborated with Peter Masilla, ex-Maccabi Haifa and Hattafa, and also, one of his two best football friends along with Dino Andlovo, ex-Maccabi Haifa And Bnei Yehuda who played with him in the Sundays. Two seasons there and he moved once again, to the humble Meritzburg United, to join the center of defense with Biban Fransman, ex Hapoel Tel Aviv and Maccabi Netanya who was very significant in his move to Israel. In the uniform of his last team in the DRAF, he was also selected as the defensive player of the season. 2018 (absorbed a total of 23 goals in 37 games). While the good friends supported his decision to come to Israel, Fransman’s recommendation for Hapoel Tel Aviv was crucial, they say.
Last season went less well for him, as a troublesome injury to his shoulder and ankle caused him to miss long periods. It actually ended already in March, with the outbreak of the corona plague in the world, when the DRAF league was frozen, his contract expired at that time and he did not sign the new terms to complete the season in the local bubble. So he did not play for more than six months and trained for more than three months. Before he came to Wolfson, another aspect that could explain the opening of his faltering season beyond the understandable difficulties of acclimatization, although Israeli football is known to have brightened the faces of players from Kolo’s country, such as those mentioned above and former Tambinkosi Fantini at Maccabi Haifa.
And last summer Hapoel Tel Aviv came. His voice debated a number of offers, but preferred the Reds over a much better financial offer in his homeland than Ajax Cape Town, and other teams like the Orlando Pirates (despite the summer news of an offer from the MLS, Orlando is a South African team) Who offered sums at least similar to those offered to him at Wolfson even before the Corona.In January 2020, he rejected a high financial offer from Nafchi Baku and waited for the right challenge to leave South Africa again.
The club said it was not easy to persuade him to sign, negotiations continued behind the scenes for several weeks in the summer, but eventually the brake was persuaded to leave the comfort zone to take on another challenge overseas and return to the international arena. He signed for one season with another option. The Reds give him up for another season in the Premier League.
Just before he returns to the yellow-green uniform of DRAF, he will try to continue the recovery of Hapoel Tel Aviv, hoping for them to stay in the Premier League – his voice is planning well ahead of the meeting with Osama Khalaila, Ismail Ryan, Nigel Hasselbaink and Dayan Kelly , To continue to do his job faithfully in the red defense, and to keep going and getting better, in his own way, through hard work and with a lot of calm and confidence, as Klinger’s safe stock in the backcourt.