Khama Billiat aims for more accolades

GOLDEN boy – Khama Billiat – “I want to bring the best out of myself again, I want to do better than I did last season.”

By Tafadzwa Ndiraire

MAMELODI Sundowns kingpin Khama Billiat says he needs to double his efforts in the new season despite his haul of accolades last term.

Billiat was by far the best player in the league in 2015/16, deservedly winning the Footballer of the Season, Players’ Player of the Season, Midfielder of the Season and KICKOFF Footballer of the Season prizes in addition to claiming Absa Premiership and Telkom Knockout honours.

Billiat is now faced with the challenge of maintaining the high standards. Following yet another splendid showing on Sunday night in Cairo in Sundowns’ CAF Champions League victory over Zamalek, which was capped by his second-half winner, just how is he psyching himself for the new season?

“I knew this will happen and I know what I have been doing for me to achieve what I achieved last season,” the soft-spoken Zimbabwean told KickOff.com.

“So I am prepared to double the effort and do even better. I want to bring the best out of myself again, I want to do better than I did last season. So whatever I have been doing last season I want to do double now and see what it will all bring on the table later. It is going to be challenging, it is not going to easy but I just pray to God not to have injuries but I am ready and willing to work myself up.”

Such is the determination of the 25-year-old – who was raised in the rough township of Mufakose in Harare – that he actually feels like he didn’t win anything last season.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=269ApGfHY_w

“With the way I want to win more I don’t even feel like I won anything last season. I feel like there is nothing that happened because I want to achieve better. I want to work so hard that I put myself in a situation whereby I don’t even see the trophies, I just put them in the card box and I don’t see them so that I always stay motivated and continue feeling like I haven’t won anything.

“That is how I believe I will be able to achieve more and more. Personal accolades are things that I want to look at when I hang my boots. That will be the time to be admiring and counting all the awards and trophies. It will only make sense to look at those then. For now it feels like I am just arriving and I still have so much more to play for. I have never reached the semi-finals of the CAF Champions League let alone win it so there are just way too many things to work for,” he says.

The writer is the Sub-Editor at SportBrief www.sportbrief.co.zw 

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