Praise for Hotto from Pirates coach

Orlando Pirates coach Jose Riveiro has made it a point to try and avoid speaking about individual players in his squad, scared to attract the wrong kind of headlines.

But there was no avoiding praise for the veteran Deon Hotto after another energetic performance at the weekend as the Buccaneers cruised into the Nedbank Cup quarterfinals with a 3-1 win over Baroka.

Hotto made the first goal with a clever body swerve and contributed to the third, too.

“We have many players with fantastic genetics and conditional capacity. Deon is one of them,” said Riveiro.

“Everybody can see it obviously. It's not only his capacity to run fast but also his capacity to repeat those runs again and again, to play 90 minutes every two-three days and he's supposed to be around 35 years old!

“He is a true professional. He knows how to take care of himself, and his life is fully dedicated to the game, and that's why, hopefully, he can continue at this level for a very long period. But like I said, it's not the only case, but probably is one of the cases that's catching more attention.”

Hotto, who turns 35 in October, has already played 30 games and scored six goals for the Buccaneers this season.