Kaizer Chiefs legend Bernard Parker recounted his personal experiences with his role model, Benni McCarthy and sharing a room with him on national team duty.
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The story
Newly-appointed TS Galaxy DStv Diski Challenge (DDC) head coach Bernard Parker once again revealed his admiration for Bafana Bafana legend, Benni McCarthy, sharing a wholesome story of how they started rooming together on international duty.
Parker, who recently hung up his playing boots to takeover as The Rockets' DDC coach, will certainly go down as a South African football legend
"Die Hond" managed to score 94 goals at club level in 529 appearances, with another 23 international goals for Bafana Bafana in 72 caps.
During an interview with Philasande Sixaba and Nono Pongolo on The All Rounders SA podcast, Parker mentioned that he looked up to and related heavily to Benni McCarthy growing.
"It was specifically that performance at AFCON '98 in Burkina Faso when he scored four goals [against Namibia], that made me realise that anything is possible because he also comes from a very poor environment, where there was no hope but he made it at the highest level," mentioned Parker.
"So, that was just inspirational to me, I could relate myself to him, maybe because of the looks as well," joked Parker.
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Parker, may not have earned as much notoriety as Benni, despite also took the plunge to go to Europe early like his role model McCarthy, having played in the Netherlands, Greece and Serbia with FC Twente, Red Star Belgrade and Panserraikos.
He mentioned how excited he was to finally share a change room with Benni and remembered a wholesome story of how they became roommates on Bafana duty:
"At FIFA Confederations Cup, Benni said to me that he wants to share a room with me. We shared a room, we were roommates. He doesn't talk much, in person, he doesn't talk much, although he's very vocal.
"So, I'm sitting in the room, the aircon is blasting, it's cold baba. I go into the closet, I get an extra blanket. The TV is on and it's on CNN and I'm thinking, 'Must I take the remote?' it was right next to him, he was on his laptop, skyping his family and speaking to in Spanish. The whole time I was watching the news, I was thinking about taking the remote, I just ended up sleeping instead. I had early nights, sleeping six-to-six," stated the retired, as he burst out into laughter with Pongolo and Xaba.
"I achieved my dream I would say, of being inspired by Benni McCarthy and then getting to play alongside him and sharing a room," added Parker.
Watch Parker speaking about his roommate experience with Benni McCarthy from minute 30 to 39:
