The Covid-19 hard lockdown feels like a lifetime ago, and so does a Rivaldo Coetzee interview in a Mamelodi Sundowns shirt. 

You can imagine how some of us journalists lit up when the club offered the utility defender as a pair alongside coach Rulani Mokwena to preview their CAF Champions League fixture against Bumamuru FC on the last day of September. 

Coetzee has been playing football since puberty, so he knows his way around a press conference and overzealous scribes – and when he sat in front of the media following an absence forced by circumstances beyond his control it was like he’d never left. 

It’s his walk into what appears to be the first team squad’s meeting room on a normal day at Chloorkop, but has been turned into a press zone, that immediately catches the eye – there’s a lot of maturity even as he’s exchanging pleasantries with the press anticipating to be buried in questions.  

The same goes for his performances on the pitch in the nine matches for Sundowns this season after making his much-awaited comeback. 

‘Riva’ was signed by the Brazilians in 2017 on the back of some serious heartbreak when an imminent move to Scotland to play for Celtic collapsed after the club discovered an underlying foot issue. 

Not only was this a blow for the player, but also a punch in the gut for the South African football fraternity with one of us – still only 21-years-old at the time – seeing his European dream shattered. 

The lifeline thrown to him by Sundowns when they knew he would not be able to play for the club at least for another 12 months was a great gesture, but picture Coetzee’s future a decade down the line had he gone abroad.  

How can we not wonder what could have been? 

“I will always be grateful to this club, they bought me when I was injured and they knew I wouldn’t play. Then last year again I was injured for a full year again and the club has been very good to me – I can’t thank them enough. It’s about me repaying their faith [because] many teams terminate contracts. But there was never any discussion of that…letting me go. They always believed in me and all I can do is stay fit and help the team as much as possible,” is Coetzee’s own reflection of a situation he has probably gone over a thousand times in his head. 

Why wouldn’t he? Celtic, at the time coached by Brendan Rodgers, who was reappointed by the Scottish Premier League outfit on a three-year deal in June to replace Angelos Postecoglou were ready to pay top dollar for his services. 

Coetzee’s resurgence coincides with what Sundowns coach Mokwena calls “chameleon football”, the type of playing style and pattern that’s got their DStv Premiership opposition bewildered and guessing. 

Mokwena is switching between formations he picks up from watching Pep Guardiola at Manchester City and his Brighton & Hove Albion counterpart Roberto De Zebri in the English Premier League this season. 

No one’s really been able to get a clear answer of what it is, and that’s precisely the idea – to confuse the enemy. 

But somehow Coetzee looks to be one of the key pieces to the jigsaw puzzle in a role of a centre back when Sundowns have their backs against the wall and quickly transforming into a defensive midfielder when in attack. 

In other words, ‘Riva’ is all over the place, but not lost at all…which is remarkable for a player that made only five appearances last season and spent the rest of it in the physio and recovery room. 

“For us as footballers, it’s never easy to adjust to new things,” he says when asked about Mokwena’s beautiful madness. 

“A lot of us like to be comfortable, but then there are some of us who like the challenges as well. We worked on this formation or this role for me since the second week of pre-season [in July], so we’ve had quite a lot of time. So far I have been enjoying it and I feel like I am growing into it more now and I think it can only get better as the season progresses.” 

It might be too early, but – typical of journalists – Coetzee was quizzed about his Bafana Bafana ambitions as well. It was a fair question. 

At 17, then a teenager on the books of Ajax Cape Town he was handed a national team debut by coach Ephraim ‘Shakes’ Mashaba, making him the youngest ever player to feature at that level. 

The record was later broken by striker Fagrie Lakay, another Capetonian in Fagrie, but there’s no doubt Coetzee has unfinished business with Bafana, who are off to the Africa Cup of Nations in January next year. 

It’s his response to a query about whether he’s kept in touch with Mashaba after all the years that again highlights how his personal setback that kept him away from the spotlight and from what he loves the most got him doing some serious introspection and not left feeling sorry for himself. 

“I am not proud to say it, but we haven’t been in touch in a while and I think maybe that’s something to look at because…in all honesty, he opened so many doors for me and I will always be grateful to him for what he has done for me personally and for my career as well,” Coetzee says.

Mamelodi Sundowns plays Bumamuru FC at the Lucas Moripe stadium at 18:00 part of the CAF Champions league campaign.