Olwethu Makhanya: From Johannesburg to Rangers' Defensive Key
Olwethu Makhanya was ready to pack it in.
At 16, alone in Johannesburg and struggling to find a club, the future Rangers defender picked up the phone and told his mother he was coming home, that maybe football wasn’t for him after all. Education, he thought, might be the safer path.
Her answer changed everything.
“You left here telling me that you're going to go play football, so I want you to do that,” she told him. No escape route. No soft landing. Just a clear reminder of the promise he’d made when he walked out the door.
So he stayed. He pushed on. And eventually, Stellenbosch came calling.
Now, at 22, the South Africa international is a key figure in Derek McInnes’ back line at Rangers, his composure and timing belying his age after a summer move from Philadelphia Union. The doubts of that teenager in Johannesburg feel a long way off, but he hasn’t forgotten who dragged him through them.
“I think my parents, especially my mum, played a really big role in me becoming a professional footballer,” he said. “I just had to keep on going until things came true for me.”
They have. And they’re gathering pace.
From family call to defensive cornerstone
Makhanya has slotted seamlessly into a Rangers side that has quietly built momentum. Four straight league wins. Just one goal conceded. A defence that suddenly looks mean, organised and stubborn.
He has been central to that run, reading danger early, attacking crosses, and bringing a calm edge to a back line that has had to withstand pressure in tight games. The late midweek win over St Mirren, snatched in the closing stages, told him plenty about the dressing room he has walked into.
“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 back him up. One goal shipped in four league matches is not an accident; it’s the product of a unit that has started to trust itself, and a new centre-half who looks like he’s been there far longer than a few months.
A new face meets an old rivalry
Now comes the real examination.
Rangers host Celtic in the League Cup quarter-final on Sunday, and for all of Makhanya’s promise, nothing in his career so far matches the scale of what is coming. He admits it.
He has never played in anything quite like an Old Firm derby.
“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.”
Crazy is one word for it. For a player who once wondered if football was even his path, stepping into one of world football’s most intense fixtures is a striking twist.
The challenge now is simple and brutal: handle the noise, manage the chaos, and keep doing the job that has earned him this stage.
“We just have to try and do our job and deliver because we know the fans are going to be behind us,” he said. “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 with his mother to the roar of an Old Firm crowd, Makhanya has already shown he can live with pressure. On Sunday, Glasgow will find out just how far that resilience can take him.
