Teboho Mokoena (born 24 January 1997) is a South African professional

soccer player 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 as a

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 ...

for

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side

Mamelodi Sundowns Mamelodi Sundowns Football Club (simply known as Sundowns) is a South African professional football club based in Mamelodi, Pretoria in the Gauteng province that plays in the Premier Soccer League, the first tier of South African football l ...

and the South Africa national team. He joined Mamelodi Sundowns on 27 January 2022 during the January transfer window.

Club career

During his schooling, Mokoena was discovered by Charles Molefe, a teacher doubling up as a soccer coach at Bodikela Junior Secondary School. His performances at school level earned him a sport at the Harmony Sports Academy from where he was picked up by

SuperSport United SuperSport United Football Club (often known as SuperSport) is a South African professional football club based in Atteridgeville in Pretoria in the Gauteng province. The team currently plays in the Dstv Premiership. United is known as ''Matsats ...

. At SuperSport United, he progressed through the academy and later captained the club at U-19 level. He was promoted to the first-team in 2016 by

Stuart Baxter Stuart William Baxter (born 16 August 1953) is a British football manager and former player who most recently managed South African Premier Soccer League side Kaizer Chiefs. Born in England of Scottish parentage, and brought up in both countr ...

and made his professional debut in February the following year, coming on as a late substitute for Cole Alexander in a 5–2 league win over

Golden Arrows Lamontville Golden Arrows F.C. are a South African soccer club based in Durban that plays in the Premier Soccer League. History It was founded in 1943 in the streets of Lamontville, a township in Durban. The club played in the defunct Nation ...

. In March 2017, after having become a regular feature in SuperSport United's midfield alongside Dean Furman and

Reneilwe Letsholonyane Reneilwe "Yeye" Letsholonyane (born 9 June 1982) is a South African retired professional soccer player who played as a midfielder. He represented the South Africa national team at international level. Early life Letsholonyane grew up kicking a ...

, Mokoena was at the centre of a club-versus-country row when Baxter refused to release him for international duty for the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 as ...

due his commitment to the club's impending

Nedbank Cup The Nedbank Cup is the current name of South Africa's Premier Soccer League, premier club association football, soccer knockout tournament. While many formats have been used over the years, the tournament has always been based on the idea of givi ...

semi-final match. A compromise was ultimately reached between the two parties, which resulted in Mokoena being specially flown up to join his international teammates after SuperSport United confirmed their progression in the tournament. He returned in time for the final but was an unused substitute as the club beat

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 ...

4–1 to claim the title. Before the final, he had also scored his first professional goal in a 2–2

CAF Confederations Cup The CAF Confederation Cup, known as the TotalEnergies CAF Confederation Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual association football club competition established in 2004 from a merger of the CAF Cup and the African Cup Winners' Cup and organi ...

draw with

TP Mazembe Tout Puissant Mazembe, commonly referred to as TP Mazembe, is a Congolese professional football club based in Lubumbashi. History Tout Puissant Mazembe, the first sports club from the Democratic Republic of the Congo with a value of at least $10 ...

. The following season, Mokoena continued to feature regularly for SuperSport United. He managed two goals and two assists for the season, and, despite the club finishing a disappointing eighth in the league, he was nominated for the PSL Young Player of the Season award. On 13 March 2019, he was awarded the league's Goal of the Month award for January following his strike against

Bloemfontein Celtic Bloemfontein Celtic Football Club (simply known as Celtic) is a South African amateur football club based in Bloemfontein that competes in the ABC Motsepe League, the third tier of the South African football league system. Bloemfontein Celtic has ...

International career

In July 2017, Mokoena received his first call-up to the senior national team by former SuperSport United manager Stuart Baxter, who had departed the club at the end of the 2016–17 domestic season, for the nation's

2018 African Nations Championship The 2018 African Nations Championship, known as the Total African Nations Championship (also referred to as CHAN 2018) was the 5th edition of the African Nations Championship, a biennial football tournament organized by the Confederation of Afric ...

qualifiers. He made his debut on 15 July against

Botswana Botswana (, ), officially the Republic of Botswana ( tn, Lefatshe la Botswana, label=Setswana, ), is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory being the Kalahar ...

and was praised following the match for his ability to "carry the team on his shoulders". The following year, he scored his first international goal in South Africa's

2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification The 2019 Africa Cup of Nations qualification matches were organized by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to decide the participating teams of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, the 32nd edition of the international men's football champion ...

win over

Seychelles Seychelles (, ; ), officially the Republic of Seychelles (french: link=no, République des Seychelles; Creole: ''La Repiblik Sesel''), is an archipelagic state consisting of 115 islands in the Indian Ocean. Its capital and largest city, V ...

. His goal also contributed towards the nation recording its largest ever victory with the match ending 6–0 in favour of South Africa.

Career statistics

Club

¹ Includes

matches.
² Includes

Telkom Knockout The Telkom Knockout was a South African professional football knockout competition which comprised the 16 teams in the South African Premier Soccer League. The competition was established in 1982 and was first known as the Datsun Challenge. Under ...

matches.
³ Includes

matches.
⁴ Includes

MTN 8 MTN 8 is the current branding for a South African soccer cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding top-flight league (currently the DStv Premiership) season. T ...

matches.

International

:''Scores and results list South Africa's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Mokoena goal''.

Honours

SuperSport United *

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2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Mamelodi Sundowns *

South African Premier Division The South African Premier Division, officially referred to as the DStv Premiership for sponsorship purposes, is the premier men's professional football/soccer league and the highest division in the league system of South Africa, organized sinc ...

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

South Africa *

Africa Cup of Nations The Africa Cup of Nations referred to as AFCON (french: Coupe d'Afrique des Nations, sometimes referred to as CAN, or TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons), and sometimes as African Cup of Nations, is the main internati ...

third place:

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Individual * Africa Cup of Nations Team of the Tournament:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mokoena, Teboho 1997 births Living people People from Bethlehem, Free State Soccer players from the Free State (province) South African men's soccer players Men's association football midfielders SuperSport United F.C. players Mamelodi Sundowns F.C. players South African Premier Division players South Africa men's international soccer players Footballers at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic soccer players for South Africa 2023 Africa Cup of Nations players