Auguston, wonderful to have you back regaling us with more stories. Last week we focused a bit on your time at Bloemfontein Celtic, where you had some hilarious tales to share on Patrick Tignyemb and on the snake you took to training. Let's get the ball rolling for this instalment!
Thanks again for the opportunity. When I was at Tuks (University of Pretoria), we played with Shane Poggenpoel and them, who always wanted to take out their (false) teeth when we were in the bus or something. Or when we were in a meeting for too long, they would take out their teeth and they would start smiling, ha, ha, ha. Shaun Bartlett was our coach at the time, so he knew that when the Capetonian players started taking out their teeth, it meant that the Capetonians had had enough of the meeting. It was Poggenpoel as the main culprit, while Mason October was also involved. They would all sit together.
Ha, ha, ha, that's crazy! So, was the message clear for coach Bartlett to end the meetings whenever these guys took their teeth out?
The coach would not have a clear view of them, but obviously it would disturb the meeting because players were starting to laugh and the coaches would not know why we were laughing. If more than one player laughed, it obviously became a disturbance. Most of the time, coaches know that if players are not concentrating, what's the use of talking because you are not getting your message through? We would just look at them and laugh. I used to sit with Kyle Koert and Chemon Petersen. Coach Bartlett was easy and chilled, but when it came to work, we had to work.
Well, it sounds like a perfect way to stop a never-ending meeting. That might have been smart from Poggenpoel and the others, although it must have felt like a kick in the teeth for the coaches. Let's move on.
Another funny character I played with while I was at Highlands Park was Tapuwa Kapini. That guy is not normal, honestly speaking. That guy is a character, and he was always making jokes or pranks. I remember this one time, I can't remember who it was, but there was a guy in our team who had big hair and, while he was in the shower, Tapuwa kept on pouring the shampoo on his head. So, this guy kept rinsing his head, but each time Tapuwa kept on pouring the shampoo. I think Tapuwa finished his shampoo on that guy's head that day, ha, ha, ha.
Yho! So much shampoo. We can imagine how irritating it was for the guy to keep rinsing, only for more shampoo to be poured onto his head without noticing.
So, at Highlands, they had these showers where there were, like, seven showers, and we are all showering together. The guy had this haircut where he had lots of hair on the top. His eyes were closed because of the soap, so he could not see. Every time he though the soap was finished and he rubbed his hair, there was just a lot of foam because Tapuwa kept on pouring shampoo onto his head, ha, ha, ha. He didn't even think there was someone pouring shampoo onto his head. He just thought that he put too much soap on his head.
Poor guy, he literally didn't see this whole shampoo business coming.
Another story that stood out for me at Highlands Park was when Peter Shalulile arrived. He came on the first day when we were busy with pre-season, and we were doing a beep test. We were wondering who this person was with the T-shirt tucked in and shorts up so high. We could hear that the English he was speaking was not from South Africa, but he could speak Afrikaans. We kept wondering where he was from, and we kept on talking about how he had his T-shirt tucked in. When we did that beep test, he was the last one left. Larry Brookstone, the boss of Highlands Park, had to stop him. He just kept on running and running. From that day onwards, you could see that the guy was going to go very far.
That's classic Shalulile. He can run the whole day and not get tired.
We were surprised when he came, because he had on tracksuit pants, a T-shirt and flip-flops. He had it tucked in. It was a tracksuit and round-neck shirt. When we went onto the field, he tucked in his T-shirt and rolled his shorts up twice. We were wondering who this guy was who did not want to stop running, ha, ha, ha. I am telling you, that guy was showing us flames that day! I remember he got injured after that. When he got back, you could see that his touches were getting better, and he was improving. His dream was always to play for (Mamelodi) Sundowns, by the way. He always used to joke that he was going to play for Sundowns and he told us about how he would tell coach Pitso (Mosimane) how he would score and stuff. I guess he spoke it into existence.
Wow, amazing!
Peter is a very funny guy. You can see it in his celebrations. He always makes people smile and he always has jokes to share. But he is also very focused. When it's time to play, he is serious. That's where you can see that he is here for business.
It's quite ironic how life works out at times. Now he is at Sundowns, where he keeps getting better and better at what he does best, which is scoring goals. And his celebration is certainly an interesting one, ha, ha, ha. Anyway, thank you so much for your time again this week, Auguston. You are definitely an entertainer of note, judging by all you've shared with the Soccer Laduma readers up to this point.
Thank you.
IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
Nickname: Gusty
Marital status:
Married to Yandré Leonard
Car: VW VeloCiti
Boots: Puma
Favourite TV programme: Power
Favourite food:
Pap, lamb chops and tomato gravy
Facebook or Twitter: None
Siyagobhoza or interviews: Interviews
Favourite footballer: Lionel Messi
Favourite celebrity: Trevor Noah
