Premier League awards next Friday

NTHAKO MAJORO
MASERU – The Vodacom Premier League (VPL) awards ceremony for the 2022–23 season is scheduled on June 30 in Maseru. This, after the Lesotho top-flight football season came to an end last month.
The Premier League Management Committee (PLMC) General Manager, Makonolo Senekale, this week confirmed the date of the ceremony, however, showing that the nominees for the awards were yet to be announced. “The nominees list is not yet available,” he said in an interview with Public Eye on Wednesday. “But there is a list of panelists currently working on it (the nominees list), and you will be notified once it has been finalised.”
Meanwhile, the race for the VPL Golden Boot was intense this season, and two players, Jane Thaba-ntšo of Matlama and Hlomelang Lebina of the Lesotho Correctional Services (LCS), emerged tied as joint top scorers. The two strikers topped the elite league scoring charts with 15 goals each.
The 2021/22 Golden Boot winner, Katleho Makateng, walked away with the accolade after he scored 20 goals in his maiden season in the Premier League with the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF), before he joined Richards Bay in the DStv Premiership in the just-ended season.
Apart from the Golden Boot, the nominees categories include Player of the Season, Players’ Player of the Season, and Young Player of the Season, which were all won by Makateng last time; the Golden Glove (Goalkeeper of the Season), was won by Monaheng Ramalefane of Matlama; Coach of the Season Molebatsi Mothobi of Matlama at the time; Referee of the Season Retelisitose Molise; and Assistant Referee of the Season Lesupi Puputla, amongst others.
“Of course, the awards ceremonies like the upcoming one are meant to recognise our players’ good performance throughout the season,” Senekale said. The PLMC General Manager further said the just-ended season was very competitive, with the league title being decided on the last day of the league.
“The league was very competitive until the last game of the season. It was not mathematically easy to tell which team would eventually win. “So I must say that it was indeed a good season to remember.” Bantu are the champions of the 2022–23 season, with Linare becoming the runners-up.
Two teams, the Swallows and Galaxy, were relegated to the lower division after finishing at the bottom of the top-flight league. Galaxy were the last team on the 16-team VPL log table, while Swallows were second from the bottom.