Andre Arendse is a South African sporting icon, having won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996, played at a FIFA World Cup as well as for English side Fulham. The former shot-stopper recently sat down with Soccer Laduma to discuss the difficulties he experienced abroad.
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How did the move to Fulham come about?
There were two things that ultimately influenced my move to Fulham. One was the Africa Cup of Nations in 1996. It gave all of us [Bafana Bafana] a massive profile in terms of our achievements, from me, the goalkeeper, all the way to the strikers. However, the ultimate decider came in 1997 when we played a friendly against England at Old Trafford. We lost the game 2-1 but the team had such an excellent performance against players like David Beckham, Ian Wright, Teddy Sheringham, with Paul Gascoigne a standout player in that game. We carried ourselves well in that game and we took them all the way.
It was a good performance all round from the team and Fulham had scouts at that game. A couple of months later I was selected to come and represent a FIFA All-Star team, we had a game in Hong Kong against an Asian XI. While I was there, I got a call from my agent to say that I should fly straight to London because Fulham had a contract offer on the table. The craziest thing about it was that I was in my hotel room in London on the morning of going to sign my contract and I got a call from Harry Redknapp, and he was the coach of West Ham at the time. He asked what I was doing in London, and I explained the situation to him. Harry was looking to replace Shaka Hislop and had been tracking me but explained that he couldn't offer me a contract immediately and would need me to trail. I had to decline though because I had already made a commitment to Fulham.
Did you ever think of taking Harry up on his offer?
I did but Fulham were in the old First Division (now EFL Championship) and I felt that I would find it more difficult at West Ham. I had never been to England and had never played in the arenas there and I still needed get use to weather conditions, cultures, foreign people. I felt like I needed to step in at a lower level.
How was the experience at Fulham on and off the pitch?
It was a very tough experience. In hindsight, I didn't get the game time I was looking for. I'd signed for the club when it was under the ownership of the Muddyman family and two months later they sold it to Mohamed Al-Fayed. He brought in Kevin Keagan and Ray Wilkins and they brought a lot of their own players and it was difficult to break through and combine that with having to come back with represent Bafana, it proved a challenge for me. But the experience of playing under somebody like Kevin Keagan, who is a Liverpool great and coached England as well, that was a phenomenal experience. One of the first things I had to do when I got to England was, I had to buy a squeegee because every morning I had to scrape the ice off my car window and it is those little things that make huge difference. Coming to grips with things like the cold weather, it was a massive challenge.
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