Former South African youth international, Junaid Hartley, has spoken glowingly about Steve Komphela and how the mentor contributed to his growth as a footballer.
Hartley started his professional career as a teenager coming through the development structures at Wits University.
Having also featured for the country's youth teams, he made his debut for the senior national side as a 19-year-old and was regarded as one of the top talents of his time.
However, his career was affected by off-the-field issues which led to him retiring at the age of only 29 and having not fulfilled his full potential.
Lens in France and Vitoria Setubal of Portugal are some of the clubs that Hartley had spells with‚ as well Orlando Pirates, Moroka Swallows and Ajax Cape Town‚ among others.
The 45-year-old has been out of a rehabilitation centre for more than a year after struggling with substance abuse for more than a decade.
The former crowd-puller was at the facility for one year and four months.
Speaking to Soccer Laduma, Hartley has poured his heart out about picking up the pieces after mistakes made during his career.
The Good
"I managed to stay with Steve Komphela when I was 15. When I went to Turkey, I stayed with the man. The guy is unbelievable in what he does and is always involved. I mean, if he was to work in construction and if there was a job for potholes to be repaired for example, he would mix the tar and be part of the people doing it instead of just observing. He is on another level with his intelligence and knowledge," said Hartley, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
"There was this other day where he gave me an example to say I should write out the word 'life'. I picked up the pen and wrote the word. He then asked me to write the word 'risk', and I did so. He then explained to me how the two words were similar in comparison and how they cannot be separated. I didn't understand and I asked, 'What do you mean?' Obviously, when he spoke that kind of language of his, as a youngster I didn't understand what he was talking about. He started explaining to me that the two words were similar in comparison because they both consisted of four letters. He said they both had the second letter as 'i' and he went on and on about it," he said.
"He is the same guy who predicted that I would be the captain of the U17 national team somewhere along the line. And it happened, Mich d'Avray made me the captain. So, Steve was more like teaching me about visualisation and that helped me a lot in my football career. I knew what to do with the ball even before I received it because of such lessons. That's why football is a religion, it's a revelation," he added.
The Bad
"Steve Komphela was always open to offering advice and he is good at it. He was always willing to sit around the table with you for those kinds of chats. It's just that sometimes people won't appreciate what you bring to the table until they see your table manners when you are on somebody else's table. Only after they see that you can use knife and fork and all those things that they can start to warm up to you. We were not born with these things," said Hartley.
The Ugly
"I need to thank God for the parents I had. They were wonderful and supportive to me and that rubbed of to my siblings. If it wasn't for my sister, there would be no me. Everybody had given up on me. It even got to an extent that I gave up on myself. God has been so great. My sister is very proud of me. What is more important is patience. We didn't know that things would happen so quickly. We need to keep on thanking God that we managed to put ourselves back into society and that things are normal. People can now listen to us when we tell the story, and therefore there's still an impact. Not many people can have their mistakes turn into their biggest blessings," concluded Hartley.
What memories do you have about Hartley?
