Oswin Appollis hails Relebohile Mofokeng as worthy Footballer of the Season winner

While Mofokeng won three awards in total, including the Player’s Player of the Season award and Young Player of the Season, and has since left Pirates to join Belgian side Royale Union Saint-Gilloise, Appollis was named the Midfielder of the Season.

Appollis scored 12 times and provided nine assists in 43 matches across all competitions last season as Pirates won a historic treble.

Mofokeng weighed in with 11 goals and provided nine assists from 36 games.

"We are teammates. Rele and I spoke about it to say whoever wins it, we'd be happy. He deserves it also, and I think Tshepang, Seema, Sipho and Mbokazi [Mbokazi] also deserved to win it," Appollis said in the Sowetan.

"I have to congratulate my teammates because without them it wasn't going to be possible to win that award. Yes, of course, you always dream of winning individual awards, but at the end of the day you can't win them without your teammates."

Appollis also refuted rumours he was set to leave Orlando Pirates before the new season starts.

“At the moment, I'm not focused on those kinds of things [transfer rumours]; my job is to play for Orlando Pirates, and I’m happy here,” he said on FARPost.

"So other things that have been in the media, I don't take note of them. As I said, my job is to play for Pirates because I'm happy here."

Pirates start the new season against Milford FC at the Orlando Amstel Arena on Saturday.