Olwethu Makhanya's Journey to the Old Firm Derby
Olwethu Makhanya will run out at Ibrox on Sunday into a noise he has never experienced before. The Old Firm, a League Cup quarter-final, Celtic in town, Rangers on a roll. For the 22-year-old South African, it is the kind of occasion he once thought might never arrive.
Years before Derek McInnes trusted him at the heart of his defence, before the four-game winning run with just one league goal conceded, Makhanya was a teenager on the verge of giving it all up.
He had left home at 16 for Johannesburg, chasing a contract, chasing a dream. It went badly. The move away from family, the uncertainty, the knock-backs – it all began to weigh heavier than his ambition.
“I went away from home for the first time, tried, but things were not going well,” he 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.’”
That could have been the end of it. A phone call home, a quiet return, a different life.
Instead, his mother drew a line in the sand.
“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.”
They did. His mother’s insistence kept him in the fight, and he eventually landed at Stellenbosch, the platform that led to Philadelphia Union and then to Rangers. The centre-half who once doubted he belonged in professional football now looks entirely at ease in McInnes’ back line.
The numbers tell part of the story. Four straight league wins. One goal conceded. A defence that looks organised, aggressive, and increasingly sure of itself. Makhanya has been right in the middle of it.
The late midweek win over St Mirren underlined something else: this Rangers squad can dig. “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.”
That togetherness now faces its most intense examination.
Makhanya has never played in anything like an Old Firm derby. Few fixtures in world football carry the same edge, the same noise, the same sense that every tackle and every clearance echoes far beyond the 90 minutes.
“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.”
For a defender, that chaos can either rattle you or lift you. Makhanya is clear which side of that line Rangers must stand on.
“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 that phone call in Johannesburg to a Cup quarter-final against Celtic, his journey has already taken in a lifetime of turning points. On Sunday, under the Ibrox lights and the weight of a rivalry he has only watched from afar, he gets another one.
