Monnapule Saleng (born 13 March 1998 ) is a South African professional

soccer Association football, more commonly known as football or soccer, is a team sport played between two teams of 11 Football player, players who almost exclusively use their feet to propel a Ball (association football), ball around a rectangular f ...

player who plays as a winger for

Orlando Pirates Orlando Pirates Football Club, referred to as simply Pirates, is a South African professional football club based in Orlando, Soweto that plays in the top-tier system of Football in South Africa known as Betway Premiership. The team plays i ...

and the South Africa national team. He was named

MTN 8 The MTN 8 is a South African soccer single-elimination tournament, cup competition launched in 1972 for teams who finished in the top 8 positions of the league table of the country's preceding season of the top-flight league (currently the Sout ...

Last Man Standing and

DSTV Premiership The South African Premiership, also known as the Betway Premiership for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the PSL after its governing body, is a professional soccer league in South Africa and the highest level of the South Afric ...

Players' Player Of The Season at the 2023

PSL Awards The PSL awards is an awards evening held to honour South African football players, coaches and officials. It is conferred by the Premier Soccer League, with awards given to athletes from the Premiership and National First Division The South Af ...

. He is regarded as one of the best wingers in South Africa.

Club career

Having started his career at Orbit College in the

SAFA Second Division The SAFA Second Division (known as the ABC Motsepe League for sponsorship reasons, and previously the Vodacom League between 1998 and 2012, was founded in 1998 as the overall third tier of South African association football, football. The compet ...

, Saleng joined

Free State Stars Free State Stars Football club was a South African professional soccer club based in Bethlehem, Free State that played in the National First Division. Formerly known as Makwane Computer Stars, Fairway Stars and Qwa Qwa Stars, their most signi ...

in 2019. He was the top scorer in the 2020–21 National First Division, scoring 13 goals in 29 matches. Saleng signed for

South African Premier Division The South African Premiership, also known as the Betway Premiership for sponsorship reasons, and commonly referred to as the PSL after its governing body, is a professional soccer league in South Africa and the highest level of the South Afric ...

club

in July 2021, but spent the 2021–22 season on loan at

Moroka Swallows Moroka Swallows Football Club (often referred to as Swallows or The Birds) is a South African professional football club based in Soweto, Johannesburg, in the Gauteng province. Founded in 1947, Swallows are one of the original two Soweto clubs ...

, where he scored twice in 22 league appearances. He returned to Pirates for the 2022–23 season, where he became a first-team regular, scoring five goals in eight matches in the opening half of the season.

International career

Saleng was part of the South Africa squad at the

2021 COSAFA Cup The 2021 COSAFA Cup was the 20th edition of the COSAFA Cup, an international football competition consisting of national teams of member nations of the Council of Southern Africa Football Associations (COSAFA). It took place on 6–18 July 2021. ...

, starting in the opening 1–0 victory against

Botswana Botswana, officially the Republic of Botswana, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. Botswana is topographically flat, with approximately 70 percent of its territory part of the Kalahari Desert. It is bordered by South Africa to the sou ...

. In total, he made 6 appearances as South Africa won the tournament. In November 2022, Saleng was included in the South Africa squad for two friendly fixtures against

Angola Angola, officially the Republic of Angola, is a country on the west-Central Africa, central coast of Southern Africa. It is the second-largest Portuguese-speaking world, Portuguese-speaking (Lusophone) country in both total area and List of c ...

and

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Career statistics

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Saleng, Monnapule 1998 births Living people South African men's soccer players South Africa men's international soccer players Men's association football wingers Free State Stars F.C. players Orlando Pirates F.C. players Moroka Swallows F.C. players South African Premier Division players National First Division players 21st-century South African sportsmen