Kasi Football

24/09/2026

They keep the record book in a small office at Puma Stadium in Witbank.

It's not a fancy book. It's a blue hardcover book, the spine is cracked, the pages are filled with different handwriting. Every year someone new is in charge of writing in it. WHL League - Witbank High & Local League. Started for high schools, then academies and local clubs joined in. Since 2017, every goal was supposed to be recorded in that book.

For almost 9 years, the name at the top never changed. Thabiso Ndlovu, 112 goals, 2017-2022. A striker who went to play in the ABC Motsepe League. Everyone thought 112 was untouchable. In a league where you only play 18 to 22 games a season, on bad pitches, with refs who love to blow early, 112 was like 500.

Then came Mpho Rampedi.

Mpho didn't start like a record breaker. In 2017 he was 9 years old, playing for the Mhluzi Stars U11s in the WHL development division. His first recorded goal was on 11 March 2017, against Highveld Park High. A tap-in. His coach at the time, Coach Lucas, wrote in the book in small letters: M. Rampedi (1).

Nobody underlined it.

From 2017 to 2020, he was just consistent. He wasn't big, so coaches played him on the wing. He would cut in from the left and score those scrappy, clever goals. 11 goals in 2017. 14 in 2018. 19 in 2019 when he moved up to U13 and started taking penalties because he never got nervous.

The COVID years messed up the book. 2020 and 2021 have pages with only 6 games written down. But Mpho kept playing wherever he could. In street tournaments, in friendlies behind Witbank High, in dusty five-a-side games where goals didn't count for the WHL. Coach Isaac says those are the years that made him, because he learned to score when no one was watching.

2022 is when the WHL people started to notice the numbers adding up.

Mpho was 14, now playing for Witbank Football Academy in the U15 Premier division of the WHL. That year he scored 28 goals in 19 games. Not because he was a classic number 9. He was play

22/09/2026

In Mhluzi, everybody knew the name before they knew the face.

Mpho Rampedi.

If you played football anywhere around Witbank, you had heard about him. You had probably been embarrassed by him too.

He wasn't the biggest. He wasn't the loudest. At 17, he was still lean, still growing into his shoulders. But when he got the ball at his feet, the whole tempo of the game changed.

The story starts where most good stories in Witbank start - on a dusty, uneven pitch behind the schools, with those hard white lines that fade before halftime.

Mpho grew up playing for a small academy team that trained at the old Puma Stadium. No fancy boots, no GPS vests, just cones made from cut plastic bottles and a coach, Coach Isaac, who shouted "head up, head up!" every five seconds.

Coach Isaac had seen a lot of "best young players" come and go. Witbank has always produced talent. But Mpho was different.

"Most kids want to beat a man," he used to say. "Mpho wants to understand him."

By 15, Mpho was playing two age groups up. By 16, he was the reason people actually came to watch local youth tournaments. He played as a 10, that dying position that everyone says doesn't exist anymore. He didn't just run. He scanned. Left, right, left again. He would receive the ball with his back to goal, feel the defender's knee, and be gone before the tackle came.

In 2025, in the Mpumalanga ABC Motsepe play-offs, his Witbank side was down 1-0 to a much bigger team from Mbombela. With ten minutes left, he scored one free kick from almost 30 meters, and then assisted the winner with a no-look pass that had even the parents from the other team clapping. That's when the videos started going around on WhatsApp. That's when the name started leaving Witbank.

Scouts came. Mamelodi. Pirates. SuperSport. They all offered something. Trials in Gauteng, boarding schools, promises.

Mpho said no.

Not because he was arrogant. Because he wanted to finish matric in Witbank, and because his mother told him, "If....

22/09/2026

Here is the full story of Mpho Rampedi:

MPHO RAMPEDI - THE BOY FROM Witbank

Mpho Rampedi was born on April 26, 2008.

He doesn't remember a time before football. Some kids grow up with toys. Mpho grew up with a ball that was almost too big for him to kick. By the time he was 4, he was already shooting at a makeshift goal made of two bricks in his yard.

In 2015, at 7 years old, his parents finally took him to a real academy. That was the year everything started. He wasn't the biggest, he wasn't the loudest, but when the game started, everyone watched him. The coach there still tells the story - on his first day, he scored 4 goals in a 20-minute practice match and then asked, "Can we play again?"

He was different. While other kids chased the ball, Mpho waited for it. He understood space. He understood timing. Even at 7.

Then came 2017. Witbank Spurs.

He was only 9 years old when he went for trials at Witbank Spurs. Most 9-year-olds would be nervous, shaking. Mpho just laced his boots and walked onto the pitch like he owned it. In that trial, against boys two years older, he scored twice and assisted one. The Spurs youth coach didn't even wait for the trial to end. He walked up to Mpho's father and said, "He's one of us now."

Witbank Spurs became his school, his family, his proving ground.

The journey was never easy. At Spurs, they train hard. Morning runs in the cold, evening sessions when your legs are burning. Mpho cried sometimes. He got injured. He was benched. He was told he was too small to be a number 9.

Every time someone doubted him, he did one thing - he scored.

He moved through the ranks. U11, U13, U15, U17. Every coach knew his name. Defenders hated playing against him because you could never relax. If you gave him half a second, the ball was already in the net.

His game is complete. He can finish with his left foot as clean as his right. He's deadly in the air despite not being the tallest. But his biggest weapon is his brain. He is always two

26/04/2026

Provincial Cup Tournament U19

Final 🙌⚽️✅️

Mpumalanga U19🆚️Free State U19
27 April 2026 [ Freedom day ]
⏰️ 13:00
🏟 Princess Magogo Stadium [ Mpumalanga ]

26/04/2026

2nd leg results ⚽️✅️🙌

Provincial Cup Tournament U19 2nd leg.
Match results ✅️

Aggregate 6 - 3
Mpumalanga U19 0 - 0 Gauteng U19

05' Mpho Rampedi 🟨 Thiery Bennard 🟥
[ Argument ] [ Roughing ]

10' Herry Moiane ➡️
⬅️ Siyanda Kgwedi
11' Sam Luke 🟨
[ Argument ]
22' Luke Bowen 🟥
[ Holding ]

35' Andile Shabalala 🟨
[ Roughing ]

First Half results ✅️

49' Siyanda Kgwedi 🟨
[ Holding ]

60' Ayabonga Maseko 🚫
[ Goal Disallowed ] offside.

70' Ayabonga Maseko 🚫
[ Goal Disallowed ] offside.

87' Mpho Rampedi 🚫
[ Goal Disallowed ] offside.
Sam Luke 🟥
[ Unlike Reactions ]

Full time results 0 - 0 ✅️

26/04/2026

Mpumalanga U19 trough the final tomorrow 🙌

First leg 6 - 3
Second leg 0 - 0

26/04/2026

25/04/2026

🔔 back to the last 45 minutes

25/04/2026

🏟 Mbombela People's park field

Crowd attendance Maximum‼️

More than 5000 People are there watching 👀 the live match ⚽️❤️

25/04/2026

12:30
Second-half Kick-off ✅️