Olwethu Makhanya's Journey to the Old Firm Derby
Olwethu Makhanya will run out into the chaos of his first Old Firm derby on Sunday with one voice still ringing louder than the rest.
His mum’s.
The Rangers defender, who has quietly become a pillar in Derek McInnes’ back line since arriving from Philadelphia Union in the summer, admits his career was once close to veering off course before a single phone call dragged him back onto it.
At 16, he left home in search of a club in Johannesburg. The dream was big. The reality was brutal.
“I went away from home for the first time, tried, but things were not going well,” the South Africa international recalled. “I called my mum this one day. I told her ‘I just want to come back, maybe focus on education because maybe football is not for me.’”
On the other end of the line, there was no sympathy vote, no soft landing.
“The thing that she told me over the phone was that ‘you left here telling me that you're going to go play football, so I want you to do that.’ I just had to keep on going until things came true for me.”
That resolve pushed him on to Stellenbosch, where his professional journey truly began, and eventually to Ibrox via MLS. Now 22, he talks about that moment with a calm certainty that mirrors the way he has settled into life in Scotland.
“I think my parents, especially my mum, played a really big role in me becoming a professional footballer,” he said. The evidence is all over his game: a defender who looks like he belongs.
Backbone of a mean defence
Rangers head into Sunday’s League Cup quarter-final against Celtic on the back of four straight league wins, conceding just once in that run. Makhanya has been central to that defensive steel.
The latest test of their resolve came in a late midweek win over St Mirren, a result that demanded more than just tidy passing patterns.
“I think it does highlight the fact that maybe the group is strong mentally,” he said. “That shows a lot of mentality and character from the boys.
“It's going to be very important to stay together. I think it shows a lot of togetherness and it's something that we've been working on off the field.”
The numbers tell one story: four wins, one goal conceded. The mood inside the dressing room tells another. This is a group that believes it can dig, scrap and suffer its way through tight matches. Makhanya, still new to Scottish football, already speaks like someone who feels part of that core.
First taste of the Old Firm
Now comes the jump from big games to the biggest one this side of the border.
The centre-half has never played in anything resembling an Old Firm derby. Few fixtures in world football match the noise, the hostility, the sheer emotional weight that comes with Rangers v Celtic. He knows it. He can feel it.
“I think everyone understands what this fixture means to the club, to the fans and everyone,” he said. “I'm really excited and looking forward to it.
“I just know that it's going to be a very passionate game. I'm honestly expecting a really, really crazy game from the fans.”
The plan is simple, even if the occasion is not.
“We just have to try and do our job and deliver because we know the fans are going to be behind us. We're going to use them as an encouragement and also understand that we're also doing it for them. They're going to be very helpful for us.”
From a teenager in Johannesburg wondering if football was slipping away, to a defender anchoring a miserly Rangers back line on the brink of his first Old Firm, Makhanya has already lived through pressure.
On Sunday, in front of a ferocious crowd and with a place in the League Cup semi-finals at stake, he finds out how far that early promise – and that firm voice down the phone – can really take him.
