Hola Tony, thanks for making time to be with us again this week.
You know, something I remembered was how some of my teammates used to dress. It all started when I was in the Mamelodi Sundowns academy. It was Khulekani Khubeka and Thendo Mukumela. Funny enough, they were best friends, but they would never tell each other the truth, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. Tell us more about them…
At that time, Hatfield in Pretoria was the spot to be at. That's where it was happening, and you actually had to dress for the occasion. You could not just rock up wearing anything, but for those two guys, they did not care about the occasion, ha, ha. So, there was a day when they had come back from the U20 (FIFA) World Cup and apparently, they got some vouchers from Burger King. The national U20 team was sponsored by Burger King and Nike at the time. So, we went to Hatfield, and we were like 'these vouchers won't just stay there'. So, we decided to go to Hatfield. So, the plan was that we would all dress for the occasion. You should have seen what they were wearing. Have you ever seen someone just putting on clothing and then going?
Ha, ha, ha. Was it that bad?
At that point, it was the era of skinny jeans. They were these funny jeans. Let me tell you. You wear a green T-shirt and, first of all, it does not even fit you properly. It's big, ha, ha. Then you wear jeans. As we were deciding to go. We were dressed properly, but as Khulekani and Thendo came downstairs, we told them to go back and change. I was like 'how are we going to get ladies when you are dressed like this?'
Tell us more…
I told them that they have to change. There was no way they were going to go out looking like that, ha, ha, ha. But they grew up those boys, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. At least they were able to grow up and have a better sense of fashion. Let's move on…
There was a time when I was at Richards Bay. Another character there who used to dress in a funny way was (Khanyisa) Mayo. So, the problem is that my friend Paseka (Sekese) is very honest, in a brutal way. Paseka is honest in such a way that your heart will be sore, ha, ha, ha. There was a time when Paseka said: 'Is this our number 10 who dresses like this?' He was referring to Mayo. Mayo is my brother. He played for SuperSport academy, and I was at Sundowns academy, so I was not able to laugh, ha, ha, ha. Mayo has got big legs and then you would see him wearing these tight, tight, tight jeans.
Ha, ha, ha. A skinny jean?
That was a super skinny jean, ha, ha, ha. He has these big calves, so you can imagine how it looked. At that point, we were starting to outgrow the skinny jeans type of vibe. We were starting to go for a loose fit. You could wear skinny jeans, but not like those ones Mayo was wearing, ha, ha, ha. Another guy who was hilarious was a guy called Mission.
What did he do?
You see the socks that we wear as footballers? You see these days players cut their socks and then there is like half of it left. So, he had this way of cutting the socks in half and then turning the bottom half of that sock into a secret sock. I have no idea how he was able to do that, ha, ha, ha.
No way! How on earth is that possible?
I am telling you. He would turn it into a secret sock, and you would not see it, ha, ha, ha. I can't even explain how he did it. When you cut the long sock, there is the bottom part that stays. So, I don't know how you can turn that into a secret sock, but somehow, he managed. And it's not like he was wearing boots. He was wearing flat shoes, and you would not see those socks. He had turned them into secret socks. To this day, I wish I knew how he was able to do that because that's crazy, ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha. He's got skills. Let's give him credit for that. Thank you so much for your time this week, Tony. It was good having you with us on In Touch. We are definitely looking forward to having you in future so that you can share some more stories from the clubs you've played for.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. I enjoyed sharing the stories with you. It was great.
By Tshepang Mailwane
IN TOUCH FUN FACTS
Nickname: Ma Lemon
Marital status: In a relationship
Car: Polo TSI
Boots: Puma King
Favourite teammate: Paseka Sekese
Favourite roommate: Malcom Jacobs
Favourite food: Slap Chips
Favourite footballer: Marcelo
Best friend in football: Tshepo Mabua
