Olwethu Makhanya's Journey: From Doubt to Old Firm Showdown

Olwethu Makhanya leans back, thinks for a moment, and goes straight to the point: without his parents, he might never have made it this far.

The Rangers defender has settled quickly into Derek McInnes’ back line since arriving from Philadelphia Union in the summer, a calm presence in a team that has rattled off four straight league wins while conceding just once. Yet the composure he shows now was forged in a period of doubt, hundreds of miles from home, when he was ready to give it all up.

A phone call that changed everything

At 16, Makhanya left home for Johannesburg, chasing the same dream that pulls thousands of teenagers into South Africa’s football hotbeds. It did not go smoothly.

“I went away from home for the first time, tried, but things were not going well,” he recalled. The frustration built to the point where he picked up the phone and called his mother, ready to walk away. Education, he told her, might be a safer path. Maybe football wasn’t for him.

The response on the other end of the line still drives him now.

“She told me, ‘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 carried him to Stellenbosch, where he eventually signed, and now to Ibrox, where a 22-year-old South Africa international is beginning to look like a mainstay.

Steel at the back, belief in the group

The numbers from Rangers’ recent run tell their own story: four league wins, one goal conceded, momentum building just as Celtic arrive at Ibrox for a League Cup quarter-final that already feels like a marker in the season.

For Makhanya, the late midweek victory over St Mirren said as much about character as it did about quality.

“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.”

The defender talks about togetherness more than tactics. The work, he insists, started away from the cameras.

“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 unity has underpinned his own smooth transition into Scottish football. He looks like he belongs. Now comes the real examination.

Stepping into the Old Firm fire

Makhanya is candid about the scale of what awaits him. He has not played in anything like the Old Firm before.

“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.”

Excitement, though, sits alongside a clear-eyed sense of what Sunday will bring.

“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 cauldron will be new. The responsibility will not. Makhanya frames it in simple terms: do the job, feed off the noise, remember who you’re playing for.

“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 with his mother to a League Cup quarter-final against Celtic, the stakes have grown with every step. On Sunday, in the white heat of an Old Firm tie, the defender who once wanted to go home will find out just how far that push from his parents has taken him.