Hotto wins first PSL title 

Namibian forward Deon Hotto (35) won the South African Premiership Soccer League (PSL) title for the first time in his career, marking his ninth trophy with Orlando Pirates.

Pirates secured the league title on Saturday – the final day of the season – with a comfortable 2-0 victory over relegated Orbit College FC. The Buccaneers opened the scoring deep into first-half stoppage time through an own goal by goalkeeper Sabelo Nkomo, who punched the ball into his own net from a corner kick.

The second half followed a similar pattern, with Orbit College conceding another own goal just three minutes after the restart. Defender Ndumiso Ngiba inadvertently lobbed his own goalkeeper in the 48th minute to seal the victory for Pirates at Bombela Stadium, giving coach Abdeslam Ouaddou a perfect debut season with Orlando Pirates.

This is Orlando Pirates’ first PSL title in 14 years, ending a long league drought since their last triumph in the 2011/2012 season, when they completed a domestic treble. The title race went down to the final day, with Mamelodi Sundowns finishing second on 68 points, just one point behind Pirates, who ended the season with 69 points. The victory also ended Sundowns’ dominance after winning the league title eight consecutive times since the 2017/2018 season.

The triumph marks Hotto’s ninth trophy since joining Orlando Pirates from the now-defunct Bidvest Wits in September 2020. Since arriving at the club, he has won all five available domestic trophies in South African football.

His first title with Pirates was the MTN8 Cup in the 2020/2021 season, a competition he went on to win five times. He also set a new record by winning the trophy four consecutive times from 2023 to 2026. Hotto became the only player to start in every MTN8 final since 2020 and win them all. He further added the Carling TKO Cup in 2026 and back-to-back Nedbank Cup titles in 2022 and 2023.

Individually, Hotto also enjoyed an impressive campaign, finishing as the league’s joint top assist provider with eight assists alongside teammate Relebohile Mofokeng — the first time in his career he has achieved the feat.

He ended the season with nine league goal contributions, scoring one goal and providing eight assists. It was his lowest league goal tally since the 2017/2018 season with Bloemfontein Celtic, where he also scored once while registering nine assists.

Hotto’s South African Premiership career began in the 2013/2014 season when Golden Arrows signed him from African Stars after only half a season with the Namibian side. He spent three seasons at Golden Arrows before moving to Bloemfontein Celtic in 2016, where he played for two seasons. Following an impressive spell there, he secured a big-money move to Bidvest Wits ahead of the 2018/2019 season. After two seasons with Wits, Orlando Pirates signed him in 2020.

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المصدر: The Namibian