Jabu Jeremiah Mahlangu (formerly Jabu Jeremiah Pule) (born 11 July 1980 in

Daveyton Daveyton is a township in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality of Gauteng in South Africa. It borders Etwatwa to the north-east, Springs to the south and Benoni to the south-west. The nearest town is Benoni, which is approximately 18 kilome ...

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

) is a retired

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

football (soccer) Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 players who primarily use their feet to propel the ball around a rectangular field called a pitch. The objective of the game is ...

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

who last played for Supersport United.

Club career

South Africa

Pule's first club was Kaizer Chiefs. The club refused to renew his contract when it ended in 2004 due to unprofessional conduct. He began playing for SV Mattersburg, but after eight months, he was asked to leave the club after crashing his car while under the influence of alcohol. Twice sent to a rehabilitation clinic to overcome his problems with drinking and drugs, Pule was sacked by SuperSport United in late 2005 after missing several training sessions. Irvin Khoza, chairman of

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club (often known as "The Buccaneers") is a South African professional football club based in the Houghton suburb of the city of Johannesburg and plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as DStv ...

, signed the former South Africa international, who had been kicked out of three previous clubs. In early 2006, Jabu Pule changed his surname to Mahlangu, the name of his deceased father.

Sweden

Pule left South Africa on 23 June 2008 for trials with Swedish clubs

Helsingborgs IF Helsingborgs IF (full name Helsingborgs Idrottsförening), commonly referred to as HIF (), is a Swedish professional football club located in Helsingborg. They play in the Swedish first tier, Allsvenskan, following promotion in the 2021 Superett ...

, IF Limhamn Bunkeflo, and

Östers IF Östers Idrottsförening, commonly known as Östers IF or simply Öster, is a Swedish sports club located in Växjö, specializing in football, and playing in the second tier of Swedish football, Superettan. The club has previously also compet ...

, after training under the guidance of Farouk Khan at his academy in South Africa. He completed 13 games for Östers IF in Division 1 Södra as the team came close to promotion into Superettan, with none of the problematic behaviour that had previously marred his career. On 18 February 2010, Jabu signed a one-year contract with now Superettan newcomers Östers IF.

International career

Jabu made 20 appearances for the South Africa national football team from 2000 to 2004, and was a participant at the

2002 FIFA World Cup The 2002 FIFA World Cup, also branded as Korea Japan 2002, was the 17th FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial football world championship for men's national teams organized by FIFA. It was held from 31 May to 30 June 2002 at sites in South Korea an ...

and at the 2000 Olympic Games. During the team's departure for the World Cup, South African president

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

, while shaking hands with the players to wish them good luck, said to him: "Jabu, you must behave yourself". He was not selected for the South African squad in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, due to his behavior.

Career statistics

International goals

References

External links

*
Guardian's Stats Centre
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mahlangu, Jabu 1980 births Living people People from Daveyton South African soccer players South African expatriate soccer players South Africa international soccer players Olympic soccer players of South Africa Footballers at the 2000 Summer Olympics 2002 FIFA World Cup players 2004 African Cup of Nations players Association football midfielders Kaizer Chiefs F.C. players SuperSport United F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players SV Mattersburg players Platinum Stars F.C. players Östers IF players Expatriate footballers in Sweden Sportspeople from Gauteng