In the Russian football championship in the lasttime more and more often legionnaires drop in - players from other countries. However, this practice did not begin at all now - and earlier foreign players played in Russian clubs. One of the most striking examples of the beginning of the zero is the South African defender Lekheto. Jacob Lekheto played for Moscow Lokomotiv for a long time and was remembered by fans for a long time. If you are not familiar with him, then this article will tell you some details of his biography. Lekheto Jacob is far from a world-class star, but he did bring enough benefit to the teams for which he played.
Carier start
Lekheto Jacob was born on March 24, 1974 inSoweto, in the Republic of South Africa. Unlike most European football players, who already before the start of their professional career, that is, before reaching the age of majority, they manage to change several clubs, Jacob did not particularly choose in childhood. He was in the academy of the African club "Moroka Swallows" and played for the youth teams of this club. Unfortunately, he did not immediately get a place in the main team - for some time, even after receiving a professional contract in 1992, Lekheto played for the reserve team of his club. Only in 1996, at the age of 22, he was transferred to the base, where the star Lekheto began to unfold. Jacob played both the defender and midfielder, but he was best given the game on the left in defense.
Performances for the native club
Jacob Lekheto has completely fulfilled hisfive-year contract with "Moroka", playing almost a hundred and fifty matches. Naturally, the club tried to extend the agreement with the player, but in early 2001, he already began to receive calls from abroad, the most attractive among which looked like the proposal of Moscow “Locomotive”. Naturally, Lekheto agreed to a salary increase, and it was also pleasant to play for a strong club of a rather serious European league. Therefore, Loko has a new legionary - twenty-six-year-old Jacob Lekheto. The player’s biography on this, naturally, did not end - everything was just beginning.
Lekheto and Russia
Итак, в 2001 году началось приключение South African in Russia. Given his age and experience, Lekheto was not at all taken like a cat in a bag - they were sure of his abilities, and he immediately began to demonstrate his power. Jacob immediately gained the trust of the coach and became the player of the base. He coped with the task, and for four years regularly played the role of a left-back. Lekheto was one of the key team members who made Lokomotiv’s success at the start of the 2000s. Together with the Moscow club, Jacob won two championship titles, one cup and one super bowl in Russia - quite impressive achievements.
The player was loved by both the fans and his partners.on command, and, it would seem, everything developed more than successfully. But by 2005, everything had changed, and Lekheto did not renew the contract with Lokomotiv, returning to his homeland and concluding an agreement with his own Moroka club. Why did this happen? No one knows the exact answer, but there are many different versions. According to the most likely of them, Jacob had to return to Africa, as his wife in Russia contracted tuberculosis. Of course, there may be some falsehood in this story, as some sources claim that Lekheto really had a wife, others that only a girlfriend, and still others write that he did not have a companion in principle. But all these stories are also accompanied by information that Jacob, apparently, fell ill with AIDS.
Homecoming
So in 2005, Lekheto movedback to South Africa, where for two years he played for his own Moroka club. But on September 9, 2008, when he left football for a year, the 34-year-old died. And again, there is no exact data regarding the cause of death. There are different versions, but the most likely is all the same AIDS that Jacob Lekheto got infected in Russia. The cause of death was made public in the Russian media, but in the home country the footballer is not in a hurry to say the same.
National team appearances
It remains only to summarize the performances fornational team of the football player. Naturally, he played for the national team of South Africa, for which he played 26 matches. It was last called up in 2004 as part of the qualifying tournament for the 2006 World Cup. Then he entered the field for the match with the national team of Ghana, and this match was lost by his team with a score of 0: 3. Even then, it was clear that Lekheto started having problems because he stopped getting practice practice, although six months ago he played all three matches in the African Nations Cup in 2004, where the South African team could not leave the group, managing to beat only the Benin and having managed to play a draw even with Moroccans much inferior in class. Thus, Lekheto missed a chance to win his last trophy.
