Former Mamelodi Sundowns left back Tebogo Langerman has opened up about how a purchase of a R3 million Ruimsig house led to his fall-out with head coach Pitso Mosimane, and ultimately led to his departure from the club.
Speaking on the Trap and Pass podcast, Langerman spoke about how Mosimane would often pick on him as one of the few players at the club who did not own a home.
One day, after negotiating a new contract with the club, Langerman approached then chairman Patrice Motsepe, and asked that instead of receiving a signing-on fee, the club should rather use that money to buy a house for him.
“I approached the president and asked him not give me a signing-on fee because it goes to the agent,” said Langerman. “Imagine getting R1 million, but when it gets to you, it’s around R270,000 or R290,000. What happened to the rest of the money? They tell you about tax and their percentages. When it gets to you, there’s nothing left. But on the contract, you can see it’s R1 million.
“I told the president that they were stealing my money. I asked that instead of a signing-on fee, buy me a house and I’ll get a salary only for the next three years, and he agreed. He told me to go look for a house and let him know when I found one.
“Immediately after training, I went to go look for a house. I went to Ruimsig, Little Falls by the hill. I wanted a house on a hill. I told the president I found a house, and after five or six days, I got a call to come sign the papers. After I bought the house, my problem started.”
To celebrate his purchase, Langerman hosted a lavish party with his teammates and plenty of other guests.
“The same day I got the key, I did a house-warming party and invited the entire team. I had a box at the gate for phones. No phones were allowed. Those were the party rules. I had R570,000 in my account. I was a superstar… I was like Puff Daddy. What happened at the party, you only saw with your eyes only. There is no proof,” he said, before adding that drugs and alcohol were plentiful.
Back at the club, head coach Mosimane was not aware that the club had used Langerman’s signing-on fee to buy the house, and called a meeting with the player.
“When I bought the house, he felt I was this big star. In a meeting, he asked why they bought me a house. ‘Out of all these players, the president bought you a house’. I told him it was bought with my money. After that, we fought more and more."
His constant squabbles with Mosimane led to Langerman hitting the bottle even more, and he eventually left the club when his contract expired at the end of the 2020/21 season. After that, he spent a year at Moroka Swallows, and moved on in 2022. He is currently a player/coach for ABC Motsepe League side Sunrise FC Lephalale.
IOL Sport