The footsteps which echoed through SAFA House on Tuesday belonged to a man walking past his own ghost.
Pitso Mosimane has stepped inside the administrative headquarters in Nasrec many times before. He knows the quiet hum of the executive offices and the heavy atmosphere that pervades the home of the national body that once pulled the trigger on his coaching ambitions.
Fourteen years ago, the debacle in Mbombela against Sierra Leone and a subsequent draw with Ethiopia, eight months later brought his first spell to a painful halt. Across 23 matches in charge between 2010 and 2012, his record stood at nine wins, 10 draws, and four losses, leaving him with a modest 39.1 per cent win rate when his tenure was cut short and his public standing left in tatters.
Does football ever truly grant second chances, or does it merely delay its next heartbreak? Do people ever genuinely forgive, or do they simply store past mistakes away, waiting for the first sign of vulnerability to bring them back to the surface?
In a game governed by short memories and ruthless judgment, redemption is the hardest currency to earn. Yet, as the Lebanese-American poet Kahlil Gibran wrote, "To be able to look back upon one's life in satisfaction is to live twice".
