Sandile AK47 Ndlovu dwells into his very beginning as a goalkeeper, when the likes of Orlando Pirates were chasing his signature, how he eventually joined Sundowns, driving the same car as Lesley Manyathela, why he believes he would have had his own airplane, the money he blew along the way and his current job in Pietermaritzburg.
Where it all started:
It started at primary school where I was known as a goalkeeper in my location. So now. I had progressed from primary to high school. So the high school was a bit from my place. I made new friends who said I should join their team as a goalkeeper. We had a good goalkeeper and I only played a few games because he was injured. I then played as a centre back too, I was gifted because I played as a centre back, midfielder and eventually as a striker. I remember one game we played in Ashdown and the goalkeeper decided not to pitch and the guys said 'Gesh' which was my nickname at the time, can you please take the goals? It was an important game. We won the game 4-3. Then after that boy came back, and I went back to my position as a defender. There was one game that we were playing top four at Zamani Stadium. The guys asked me if I could play striker because our strikers were not scoring. I scored five goals. I was happy! You know the feeling of scoring... I was like no, I'm not a defender, a goalkeeper nor a midfielder - I'm a striker!
I don't know what happened to our team. But I went back home and played for Highlanders, which is my father's team. So there was one time we were playing Sobantu. I scored two goals as a striker, so they said no, because you guys are third and we are fourth and the league is about to finish. The second round, once we play against you and we beat you, we will take Gesh. In the second leg, they beat us 4-1 they came and spoke to my father. I saw they played well and where I would fit into the team. Plus they offered to pick me up and drop me every day as training was some distance away from my house. Best of all, they offered me (payment) for every goal I scored.
They were honest because if I scored two goals, they would pay me R150. Three goals would be R200 and so forth.
We qualified for the play-offs and that's where I showed who I am. Showing my true colours as a striker. First game, I scored five goals, we won the game 9-2 and everybody was calling my number 12 because they didn't know me. We qualified for the Vodacom League and that's when teams came. Orlando Pirates said they will book a ticket as they were waiting for Dr Khoza who was out of the country at the time. On 20th of June 2003, I had a call from Sundowns, it was Peter Koutroulis. Because, you know, I was ignoring calls from teams in the Mvela League because I was here and they ignored me, so now I was also ignoring their calls.
Sundowns said, here is your reference, you'll be flying tomorrow at 12pm. They did their homework, and they knew everything about me. I don't even know where they got my number. We went to the airport to verify if it was true, which it turned out to be. Because I had already committed to Sundowns by my word, my father told me to switch off my phone and I had to hide because Pirates came knocking and my father told them I had gone to the mountains to train. I arrived at Sundowns the next day and trained the same day. The rest as they say, is history.
My professional career:
Make no mistake, there's no regrets on my professional career. I've done my part. I've played my part and I'm happy that I played professional football because I don't have any regrets. I was chosen to be there because you know, there's thousands and thousands of boys who never made it. Those guys were more talented than me. So, I have no regrets whatsoever with my career. I thank God, that I was blessed with talent, I was popular, even now when I see people, they still cherish my name, people are still happy to see me. I can't take it away from me and I can't take it away from God.
My biggest splurge:
I bought a Golf Four GTI which was driven by Lesley Manyathela. At that time, it was one of the top cars in South Africa. When I was playing, cars were not a common thing, especially here in Maritzburg. So I cannot blame the current generation for getting money now because there's a big change financially, and there's a big change in the environment to the one we had. I was happy with the money that I was getting. Because I was satisfied with whatever that I was buying at that time. When I was playing for Swallows because the environment was different, I managed to buy a BMW. As you can see, maybe if I was still playing now, I could have had an airplane!
