Hola Abram, we are delighted to have you back with us again this week. After sharing some funny stories from your time in both the junior and senior team at Mamelodi Sundowns, you have a few things to talk about from your time at Marumo Gallants. The floor is yours...
Thanks for the opportunity again. While I was at Marumo Gallants, we had a match against Orlando Pirates. I was on the bench for that game. Just to let you know, this happened last season. So, there is a boot bag, and that bag has two zips for different compartments. I put my boots in the first zip and not the usual one where I put them. As we were about to start our warm-up for the game, I thought I left my boots in Polokwane because I could not find them in the zip compartment which I usually put them in.
Eish…
So, I told our physical trainer that I left my boots behind, and I wanted to use his boots for the warm-up. Mind you, my boots were in my bag, but I had not checked in the other zip. So, I asked Tshepo Gumede for boots because he had two pairs, but I wear size nine and he wears size eight. He gave me his boots, but they were so small. They were so tight and I was walking around like I was stepping on eggs, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. We can imagine what that felt like…
Imagine. So, I walked out of the dressing room and one of the guys asked me why I was walking that way. I told him that I had a blister, but it's because the boots were so tight. I took part in the warm-up, but those boots were stiff. At the back of my mind, I was wondering what would happen if our number one goalkeeper, Washington Arubi, got injured. That meant I would need to go on with boots that are tight. As I was sitting on the bench, I was praying that Arubi would not get injured because I did not want to go onto the pitch with those boots, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. That's a first. We usually hear players talking about how much they want to play, but you were praying not to get onto the pitch.
Yes. We lost that game 1-0. When I got to the dressing room, I gave Tshepo his boots back. When I opened my bag, my boots were there. I found them. I sat the entire 90 minutes on the bench with sore feet. I was even sweating because those shoes were putting me through pain. Just imagine, ha, ha, ha. What's interesting is that I was in top form that week, leading up to the game. It was just a matter of getting an opportunity to play. But then I had the situation with my boots, ha, ha, ha. I kept on asking myself why I did not properly check my bag for the boots.
Ha, ha, ha. That's a crazy story. Let's get into the next one.
Eish, that was the worst nightmare. There was that time when we went to Turkey, while I was at Marumo Gallants. It was when we were going to play in Libya (in the CAF Confederation Cup). We had to go to Libya in Benghazi. They said the first group of players has to go to the airport. So, the first group left for the airport from Sandton. But when they got there, they told them a flight was not booked for the team. Then, that group of players had to go back to Sandton. Then our group, the second group that had stayed behind, went to the airport. So, we were going in opposite directions. Then that first group of players had to come back to the airport. That was around 7pm, but there were no flights to go to Libya. The chairman (Abram Sello) had not paid for any flights, and we had to go to Libya because we were meant to play there.
Go on…
So, we got to Turkish Airways, and they said there were available flights and they bought tickets for us. It was like we were getting on a taxi from Jozi to Pretoria. Luckily, we got a flight to Turkey, so that we can connect to Libya when we got there. Usually when you have a connecting flight, you get two boarding passes. That day, we only got one ticket. When we got to Turkey, we sat in a section that's not comfortable. We had to have a boarding pass for us to go to the place where it's more comfortable. It was cold where we were sitting and there wereno heaters.
Eish…
We wanted to pass to get to the other side where we can buy water and food, but we did not have the boarding passes. We were waiting on the side where it was cold and we only had 45 minutes of Wi-Fi, ha, ha, ha. As we were sitting there, the security guards were asking us where our boarding passes were because we had been sitting there for hours. It was so cold, and, at the time, I was wearing shorts. You know those cold benches? We sat there for about 16 hours without water or food. I had to ask someone to lend me long pants, just to keep warm. I never felt like a foreigner until I experienced that. I sat there for 16 hours, and it was cold and people were starting to get concerned…
…Let's stop here for this week, because we know that there is more to share from that experience. Thank you so much for your time and we will hear from you next week.
Thank you.
By Tshepang Mailwane
IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
Nickname: Briio
Marital status: Single
Car: Polo Vivo
Boots: Nike mercurial
Favourite teammate: Ranga Chivaviro
Favourite roommate: Lesiba Nku
Favourite food: Pap stew
Favourite footballer: Lucky Mohomi
Best friend in football: Ismail Watenga
