Africa-Press – Lesotho. Likuena defender, Ngaka Lenka, says getting a call-up to the Lesotho senior national team has helped him heal after he was expelled from LMPS over what he says were false links with criminal gangs.
The 25-year-old utility player left Makhomosha FC for LMPS FC in January 2019 in what looked as a big breakthrough for his football career. He had expected that the move would see him get a job with the police, a norm at clubs such as LMPS, LDF and LCS where footballers are offered job opportunities.
But that dream move soon collapsed after he was suspected to be a member of a criminal gang due to his tattoos. Lenka, who was part of Veselin Jelusic squad that travelled to Eswatini for the two friendly matches last weekend, eventually left LMPS FC following several cases involving his dismal and other 11 other recruits.
He joined relegated Swallows last season and was handed the captain’s armband and is now being courted by several of the Premier League big guns. “It broke me I don’t want to lie because my hope after joining LMPS FC was like others, I would get a job in the institution as has happened before with many footballers,” Lenka said.
“It was a big step in the right direction so that I could help my family financially as my father is late and my mother needed my assistance with my siblings who are still in school.
“The worst part of it all is that I was dismissed for things I’m not and to this day I have no criminal case to my name.
All I have been doing since I was a young boy was to play football. ” The lanky utility player said football and the support from his family helped me him to put the trauma behind him.
“The support I received from all people around me being my family and football colleagues helped me to get my groove back. I had to pick up the pieces because I knew that another door would open for me,” he said.
“Being selected for the national team was a cherry on top though I was still struggling mentally, but it has always been my dream to one day play for the national team.
“I had to focus so that I get more opportunities with the national team and to be honest, it as the one thing that really made me forget about all that.
” Lenka stated that his dismissal from the police training hit hard on his mother, but she was very supportive throughout the process.
“My mum was very supportive throughout the process as well as my guardians here in Maseru, who I have been staying with since I left Thaba-Tseka to join LMPS.
They still don’t know why all that happened to me as they know I don’t have any criminal record. “My motto in life is that I must be able to cope, react and respond in an appropriate way to every situation. I’m always calm because I was told that challenges such as that I encountered help us to grow and become better people,” he said.
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