Matthew Donovan Pienaar (17) from Reiger Park in Boksburg has dreams of becoming a professional soccer player.
Pienaar started playing soccer at the age of 9. When he was young he did not really like soccer at first, but due to his mom telling him stories about his grandfather playing soccer he grew to love the sport. The first team Pienaar played for was a local team called Boksburg Pirates and he played 2 years for the club.
At the age of 13 Pienaar saw an advert on Facebook about Liverpool hosting soccer camps in Durban and he did not let this opportunity pass him by and went for trials. Pienaar was such an exceptional player that one of the coaches actually recruited him for a new football club the coach started in Johannesburg. After some time he went to a new team in Benoni called BenoniNortherns he stayed at this team for 2 years.
Pienaar had to stop playing soccer for a year because he found out he had a heart murmur. When he returned to playing soccer again he joined a Portuguese team called Sporting CP (Clube de Portugal). He is still playing for the club and recognised by the provincial team, Pienaar was recruited by them.
“I would like to play for the first team in Portugal Sporting CP and my role model has to be Neymar Jr”, said Pienaar.
At the last tournament he played with the team, they came second because they were beaten on penalties because no goals were conceded against them.
