104 goals PSL man Tico-Tico: My offside goal against Chiefs was the best
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Manuel Tico-Tico Bucuane of Jomo Cosmos tries to round Marco Mthembu of Kaizer Chiefs in the 2000/01 Coca Cola Cup final. Photo: Gallo Images
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104 goals PSL man Tico-Tico: My offside goal against Chiefs was the best
Aug 10, 2026 – 09:56 am
By Lunga Adam
A former striker who sits comfortably in the elite list of the top 10 all-time PSL goalscorers has revealed that a tap-in against Kaizer Chiefs was the best of the 104 goals he netted.
Manuel ‘Tico-Tico’ Bucuane linked up with Jomo Cosmos in the aftermath of the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations and went on to cement his place as one of the most lethal predators the league has ever seen and up there with the best imports from around the continent.
With the PSL turning 30 this month, the Mozambican’s name still has relevance in the local game having also had stints with SuperSport United, Orlando Pirates, and Maritzburg United.
“I scored 104 in the PSL, with an additional two coming just before the PSL was launched. Remember, between the end of the AFCON and the start of the PSL season, there was this big gap,” explains the softly-spoken Bucuane, speaking to KickOff from his home country on Friday evening.
“So, it’s a lot of goals, and they bring different memories and different feelings, and were scored in different competitions. But I’d say the best was the one in the 2001/02 Coca-Cola Cup final against Kaizer Chiefs when we beat them 1-0. This was after they beat us 5-0 in the previous final of the same competition.
“For us who were in the stadium, we never understood there was [an] offside, and only those watching from home realised it. It was a very beautiful goal, [happened] very quick, and also it was a winner. It was a revenge game, a revenge goal. For us, that was massive.
“I remember there was a lot of fighting that happened towards the end of the game with Chiefs fans throwing stuff onto the field. The referee had to stop the game for a while,” adds the man who turns 53 on August 16, before going on to describe how the decisive strike came about.
“I can only recall the last part of it. A ball was played to ‘Terminator’ [Dikgang Mabalane] on the right and he then went for a cross, a very hard cross onto the first pole. I beat the defender to the ball and connected with it very fast. That’s why no one realised I was a bit advanced. It was a tap-in, actually.”
The previous year, Amakhosi had hammered Jomo Sono’s men with five unanswered goals in arguably the most one-sided final in the PSL era, with Jabu Pule [now Mahlangu] toying with the opposition defence.
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“I had this instinct of being in the right place at the right time. I could anticipate what was going to happen. But I practised my finishing a lot because you really have to practicse after everyone is gone [from training]. Most times, the coach won’t have time to focus on the strikers, so you have to take that initiative.”