Bafana Bafana legend Benni McCarthy openly discussed the challenges he faced under Brazilian coach, Carlos Alberto Parreira.
Check it out!
Read | Lebitso On Injury: Everyday Was Pain
The story
As the South Africa men's national team's all time leading goal scorer, Benni McCarthy's exclusion from the 2010 FIFA World Cup squad came as a shock to many when it transpired.
McCarthy shared a story in his chat with Peter du Toit on the SoccerBeat podcast about the issues he experienced with Parreira as Bafana's head coach.
Benni passionately recounted how intense some of Parreira's demands were for him, including a request for him to be part of a six-month training camp, which was unsurprisingly refused by Benni's employers at the time, Blackburn Rovers.
"Parreira and Danny Jordaan, they came to England to see us, myself and Aaron Mokoena at Blackburn. They spoke with the chairman, clubs owners and the manager.
"So, they asked if there was a possibility that the club can let me go for three months of the six months for a training camp. But, you're in the middle of a Premier League season, what club in their righteous mind is going to let their number one striker go away for three months for a training camp for the Bafana team?
"The club said no straight away to the suggestion," shared the legend. "So then, Parreira spoke to me to say that the power is with me, that if I want to go to the camp with Bafana, I should just tell the club that I want to do that.
"I don't know if the guy was patronising me or... So me, playing with my future, just to go to a training camp? I was like, 'I don't think I can do that.'"
The former Manchester United first team coach, who scored over 30 goals for Bafana, said that incident sparked the period of discomfort for him in the national team set-up.
Read: Chiefs Star Turns Heads At Rich Mnisi Party
"Every time, when I came back to Bafana, I just felt like there was just a massive, massive distance between me and Parreira. It's almost as if they were making an example out of me, kind-of."
Benni also touched on receiving a call-up during him spell at West Ham and how he was put on, what he describes as a "fitness regime" to get him back in shape after a two-month injury layoff.
"Because I was out [for 10 weeks] they wanted to make sure I was up to scratch, up to standard with the rest of the team. Most of the guys had been playing while I was injured.
"So, my training regime was different from the rest of the squad, which is understandable because I was out for 10 weeks where I didn't train hard and that...
"When I came to the national team, yes I wasn't train with the team because I was going through this fitness regime to that I'm up to standard, which knocked the living day lights out of me. Honestly, they made me vom... I almost puked every training session because it was that f***ing hard," recounted Benni.
Watch the pod below (skip to minute 39 to hear Benni speak on his time in the national team under Parreira):
