If you haven’t yet heard the name Gift Ngoepe then listen up, because there’s some serious star quality to this guy.

The 27-year-old made history this week when he became the first African player to appear in Major League Baseball, the pinnacle of the sport.

Not only that, but he had himself a rather decent debut.

Look at his teammates checking his heartbeat – love it:

What a moment. pic.twitter.com/59UyHlrdz3

— Pirates (@Pirates) April 27, 2017

Not done with a debut that grabbed headlines around the world, Gift went one better on Saturday morning:

Love the flair, but can someone tell the Yanks how to pronounce the guy’s name?

Now everyone knows that the Major League means major money, and one of the joys of the internet is that you can find out exactly how much everyone is getting paid.

Here’s Spotrace with the details, right down the bottom of the list:

He might be amongst the lowest salaries at the Pirates, but that’s Gift taking home a cool $535 000 (R7,1 million) per year.

As an aside their top paid player, Andrew McCutchen, takes home over $14 million – not bad.

The South African have a list of the things we should know about Ngoepe so let’s check that out:

You could say he was born into baseball

Gift’s mother worked at the Randburg Mets (yes, really, we have baseball clubs here). The two stayed at the club and he started playing ball when he was just three years old. His mother started off working as a domestic worker for the club, having moved to Joburg from Limpopo.

He was named as one of the M&G’s 200 Young South Africans last year

Every year, the Mail & Guardian picks some of the most inspiring young South Africans in various field and last year, Ngoepe was picked. The paper noted at the time: “Many pundits there believe it is a matter of when, not if, he gets his opportunity to play at the highest level.”

He’s made history more than once

He was in the news this week for being the first African-born player to join baseball’s major league. But he was also the first black South African to sign a professional baseball contract back in 2008.

He loves cricket

In an article published by Sports Illustrated when Ngoepe first emerged on the scene, writer Gary Smith noted: He played cricket in the clubhouse, using the dustbin for a wicket, when the clubhouse manager wasn’t looking. He was also pretty damn good at cricket and was his school’s player of the year in Grade 7.

He represented South Africa at baseball

When he was 15, he traveled with a South African team to Mexico and Cuba. The club where he’d lived with is mother helped raised the funds to make this happen.

You can see that full list HERE, as well as a Sports Illustrated article on Gift back in 2009 HERE.

Here’s hoping he continues to go from strength to strength. How can you not love this smile?

[sources:ewn&spotrace&thesouthafrican]