Lebohang Mokoena (born 29 September 1986 in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

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 South African

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who plays for Moroka Swallows. Mokoena is known for his pace and dribbling ability, and is most commonly found playing upfront or on the right wing. He has no relation with former

Portsmouth FC Portsmouth Football Club is a professional football club based in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, which compete in . They are also known as ''Pompey'', a local nickname used by both HMNB Portsmouth and the city of Portsmouth; the ''Pompey'' nick ...

player

Aaron Mokoena Teboho Aaron Mokoena (born 25 November 1980), known as Aaron Mokoena, is a South African former footballer. He is currently the assistant coach of Cape Town City. Club career Early career Mokoena was born in Boipatong. He moved to Bayer Leve ...

. He is also extremely famous for being featured on ''

Football Manager 2005 ''Football Manager 2005'', known as ''Worldwide Soccer Manager 2005'' in North America, is a football management simulation video game for PC Windows and Mac developed by Sports Interactive and published by Sega. It is the inaugural entry in t ...

'' as a high potential and relatively cheap signing.

Early beginnings

Mokoena started playing football at the age of eight, playing football in the streets of his birthplace,

Diepkloof Diepkloof is a large zone of Soweto township in the Gauteng province of South Africa. It is also sometimes referred to as Diepmeadow, if considered as a single township with the nearby Meadowlands (although there is Orlando in between). Diepkloo ...

in Soweto. While growing up, Mokoena excelled in other sports

athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competi ...

. He had a keen interest in sprinting and broke records in the 100, 200 and 800 meter events at his Primary school. Mokoena began playing football for his local team ''Diepkloof Hellenic''.

Career

Mokoena's arrival into the professional ranks was promoted to the first team at the age of seventeen. He made his PSL debut coming on as a substitute in the 2–2 draw away to Santos on 1 November 2003, going on to play twenty-four matches in that season, starting eleven and coming off the bench thirteen times; he netted five goals. In the next season (2004–05), his efforts were rewarded when he won the club's Most Improved Player of the Year award. In 2006 Lebohang was promoted to Orlando Pirates senior team where he spent three seasons, before moving to Pretoria side Mamelodi Sundowns. Mokoena currently plays for

Moroka Swallows F.C. Moroka Swallows Football Club (often known as simply Swallows or The Birds) is a South African professional football club based in Soweto in the city of Johannesburg in the Gauteng province. Founded in 1947, Swallows are one of the original two ...

and he is also their captain.

National career

Mokoena is one of a few young players in the country who has the record of having represented his nation at all levels starting with the Under-17 (14 caps), U-20 (2 caps) and he was a regular figure, and one of the top goal scorers, in the U-23 squad. "Cheeseboy", as he is nicknamed, made his international debut in a 2–1 win against

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

during the

CONCACAF Gold Cup The CONCACAF Gold Cup ( es, Copa de Oro de la CONCACAF, french: Coupe D'or CONCACAF) is the main association football competition of the men's national football teams governed by CONCACAF, determining the continental champion of North Ameri ...

in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

on 8 July 2005.

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Mokoena, Lebohang 1986 births Living people Sportspeople from Soweto South African Sotho people South African soccer players South Africa international soccer players 2005 CONCACAF Gold Cup players 2006 Africa Cup of Nations players Association football midfielders Association football forwards Orlando Pirates F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players Cape Town Spurs F.C. players Moroka Swallows F.C. players South African Premier Division players National First Division players