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Cape Town - Last season's PSL Player of the Season, Tefu Mashamaite, revealed that snubbing Kaizer Chiefs was necessary for him to achieve his dream of playing abroad.
The 30-year-old defensive stopper signed a two-and-a-half-year deal with BK Hacken in Sweden recently after rejecting Chiefs' offer of a new contract.
Prior to the deal, Mashamaite had spent ten days on trial with Major League Soccer franchise New York City FC.
Mashamaite, together with former teammates Itumeleng Khune and Mandla Masango, infamously walked out on Chiefs after failing to agree contract terms.
The former Amakhosi captain said a bad public perception was created after the trio rejected the offers made.
"I've always dreamt of playing overseas, and I made a pact with myself that, come the end of the 2014/15 season, that I'd try and be ambitious and try to ply my trade overseas," Mashamaite told Soccer Laduma.
"With the whole New York thing it didn't come out how I'd wanted it to be, but I'm happy that everything came through and that I'm on my way to Sweden.
"I just feel like that since the end of the league campaign Mandla, Itu and I have been painted with the same brush, like we had a conspiracy against Chiefs, and it's not like that."
