Dear Soccer Laduma readers, this week's Siya Special looks a lot different as we had to react to one of the biggest stories of last week, that of Kaizer Chiefs officially parting ways with Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana. It is a story that shocked some, seeing that he had only spent one season with the club. And in that one campaign, he had a return of eight goals in 21 appearances, though most came from the penalty spot. Initially, the club had sent the lanky Burundian back home after a trial, only to make a U-turn after a walloping by Mamelodi Sundowns. His goals brought joy to the Khosi Nation, but he had to endure a lot of criticism when the goals dried up, and in the end, the frustrations overshadowed what was an otherwise decent spell for the 25-year-old at the Naturena-based outfit. As a consequence, Soccer Laduma's Masebe Qina caught up with the player's representative, Rorui Frois, to discuss the turn of events. The South African-based Mozambican agent, who knows the Mzansi football landscape like the palm of his hand, speaks candidly about his client's challenges at Amakhosi, and makes startling allegations about players not passing Bimenyimana the ball, in some instances. There are also some choice words about head coach of last season, Arthur Zwane. Enjoy this exclusive!
Masebe Qina: Hello, Rorui. Let's go straight to it. How do you feel about Kaizer Chiefs' decision to part ways with your client, Bonfils-Caleb Bimenyimana?
Rorui Frois: I would like to state that what has been done to my boy is unfair. If I look at it from my side, he did well, even though he never got full support. If they had issues with the boy or something, or maybe they wanted to bring another striker, they should have gone for a different approach. I mean, today you can loan players out and things like that. You can send a player to a smaller club to see what he can do there and bring him back, and by doing that you are giving him a chance. I am monitoring the situation of this boy from Marumo Gallants (Ranga Chivaviro) and I know he hasn't yet gelled with the team, but I see the same problem (as with Bimenyimana) ... he's not getting the supply. Come on, man, Chiefs is a big club and they can do better than what they are doing now. I'm sorry about that and I've got a good relationship with the club and this is not about protecting the player and is just my view. You give a chance.
MQ: What do you mean Caleb never got full support?
RF: I mean if you watched some of the games for Chiefs, you might have seen that the coach then, Mr. (Arthur) Zwane, … a very good friend of mine as well … you don't blame players. There are certain things that a coach cannot do, like rushing to blame players when things go wrong. Blaming one player in front of the other players, come on, man, what message are you sending? Okay, the supporters will look at it in a different way, but some of the supporters don't understand football. Once a coach blames a player, some of the supporters will think that the player is wrong and that can put the player's life at risk sometimes because of the coach's failure. If your son at home is not doing exactly what you as the father expect him to do, you call him aside and tell him about it. You don't shout at him in front of the other kids and everyone else – you don't do that. You might have seen things like that happening on the field and on social media and the poor boy didn't take it well. There were games where the boy would get so frustrated to the extent that he would hit the floor because the ball wasn't being passed to him. You need to look at those things, Sebes, because for you to be a good journalist, you also need to understand football and I don't know if I'm wrong or what.
MQ: Right you are!
RF: Caleb really wanted to score those goals, but there was not enough supply. He had to go deep to fetch the ball himself. You would have seen this many times as the games were on national TV. The boy is still young and needed the coach to work on him to improve. But what can you do? I'm not here to take sides just because Caleb is my boy, no. I'm just stating the facts.
MQ: For a player who scored eight goals in his first season with the club, it came as a surprise that he was released. What was the club's reason?
RF: I was also surprised. You've got a top goal scorer in your team, but you make it to be about something else which I don't know. I know it's tough at the big clubs and the player might make one or two mistakes by maybe confronting the coach and things like that. I know that at one stage he asked the coach why he wasn't playing him and maybe that could be one of the reasons, I don't know. But I had told Caleb to carry on training even if he wasn't playing. I told him not to confront the coach because doing those kinds of things can create enemies for you, but players get frustrated and we've seen the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo not being happy with Jose Mourinho at Real Madrid. But a coach shouldn't shout at players in front of their teammates. A coach is like a teacher or a father. A coach should be able to tell a player that, "I know you are a good player, but there are certain things that I need you to change a little." That's how it should be done – a father-and-son kind of a relationship.
MQ: We can't agree with you more.
RF: When I met Caleb, I got a mandate from his father to represent him. I made a promise to his father that I wouldn't be looking after Caleb only on football matters but even outside of the sport. I talk to him and treat him like my son. That's how you do things as an agent, and you tell the player about how South Africa is for someone who has been new to the country. Some of these boys come from Europe and when they arrive here, they think South Africa is just another African country and, as an agent, you need to sit down with them and explain how good this country is because South Africa is actually better than some European countries. The league here is one of the best in the world, so you need to make sure that these players don't come here with a rotten attitude to think that it will be easy to play here. Discipline is important, as well as respect, always. As a foreigner, you have to go all out to give 150% on the field. For local players, 100% effort is fine, but for a foreigner it should be more. You must give your best like the Ernest Mtawalis of this world did when they first arrived to play here, your Tico-Tico Bucuanes, the Roger Feutmbas of this world, and there are many more. Those are the kinds of conversations I had with Caleb and I took him to have a conversation with Collins Mbesuma, who was once a Kaizer Chiefs player himself and did very well. I wanted Collins to give him advice about playing in that position as a striker at Chiefs because I think until today, no player has scored as many goals for Chiefs (in a season) like Mbesuma did. I took him to Jomo Sono for advice because I wanted him to be fully prepared as part of my job as an agent. It is sad that he did not last. Of those two seasons we signed for, he lasted only one, but I cannot say he is a failure – he is not a failure. I've seen strikers who went to the club and failed.
MQ: So, you reckon things changed for Caleb after he confronted coach Zwane?
RF: For me, that is obvious. You can never confront the coach, no matter what. Zwane is a good coach, but (at) the same time the team might have looked a little bit bigger for him. Kaizer Chiefs is a big club and I remember the likes of Paul Dolezar, who used to coach the club and would get frustrated at times and start calling players names when football was really tough. Coach Molefi (Ntseki) is now there and with the experience that he has, maybe things will change, but with Zwane, I think it was a rush. With Zwane, I appreciate that he produced some good young players from the development and he was a good player himself, having played abroad at one stage, and was a big player for Chiefs, but with regards to coaching Chiefs, I think the club was too big for him. He was really thrown into the deep end. Everyone who knows football will agree that you cannot just throw someone like Zwane into the deep end like that at a club like Chiefs. It was too much, man. Chiefs has got the biggest support in South African football, but I understand that he couldn't turn his back on the club when given the job to do, he is the son of the club in the end. He took the job and things didn't go well for him and that was not because he is a bad coach, but the decision was a rushed one.
MQ: How does Bimenyimana feel about his time at Amakhosi?
RF: All I can say is that, as a foreigner arriving at a new club, don't expect to make friends in your first season. I repeat, don't expect to have any friends when you have just arrived. Some of the local players will act like your friends, but deep down, they prefer one of their friends to be the one playing in your position. They will never give you the right balls (passes) and all you will get are difficult passes. You must have seen how frustrated the boy was in some of the games and he would be screaming and hitting the floor. I had advised him against acting like that out of fear that someone might not like it. I remember having a conversation with one of the players at Chiefs and he is a defender (identity known to Soccer Laduma), and he said to me, "Bab' u Rorui, don't worry, I will play those long passes from the back to locate Caleb for him to score the goals." The player I'm talking about could also see that Caleb wasn't getting the passes like he should. True to his word, the poor boy would play those long passes to Caleb and Caleb benefited from some of them and it was good to see (laughs). So, it had got to that situation where even some of Caleb's colleagues could see that he was struggling to get the supply. I'm not trying to talk bad about the club or anyone, but I'm telling what people also saw for themselves during matches.
MQ: Sure.
RF: I sit and listen to people talking about Caleb scoring penalties and stuff like that, but I don't think anyone has seen the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo scoring three penalties in one game. Chiefs have millions of supporters and if you miss one penalty, you are dead, so is it that easy? It is not easy and people talk as if scoring penalties is easy. So, if a player is that courageous to step up to take those penalties, not one, not two but three, and you need those points in a team like Kaizer Chiefs where it is do-or-die, can it be that easy? Come on, man, the boy deserves some credit! It takes a flexible player and a leader to do that.
MQ: Who was Caleb close to at the Soweto giants?
RF: He was close to (Siyethemba) Sithebe and one or two others who would go out with him for lunch and so on. Sometimes they would come to my house together, but he didn't have a lot of friends that he was going around with. But all I'm saying is that the boy was not given enough chance at Chiefs.
MQ: How he signed for Chiefs is an interesting story…
RF: Yes. Before he signed, he was in Polokwane with the team for pre-season, where he did well. But on arrival from Polokwane, he was sent home. Chiefs played against (Mamelodi) Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld Stadium and were beaten 4-0, and it was after that game that I got a call from Molefi and I had actually been at the stadium to watch that game. I had been there together with Roger Feutmba and Molefi didn't know that I was there when he called. I had been on the Sundowns side because I've always had a good relationship with Sundowns and the club provides me with VIP tickets. I have had (Elias) Pelembe there and others over the years and I've always had a relationship with people like Trott (Moloto) and others. Molefi asked me to send the passport number of the boy and that the boy should go to the airport and come back.
MQ: Must have caught you by surprise!
RF: That immediately told me something about the decisionmakers at the club. Was it the decision of the coach? Who was the coach at the time? Arthur Zwane! Why didn't you make a decision when the player was still with you during the camp in Polokwane? That would have allowed for enough time for him to gel with the team instead of sending him home, only to call him back again.
MQ: Was it Zwane who wanted the player back?
RF: No! The player had been there with the coach during preseason and he had said 'no' to him. That's why the boy had to go back home.
MQ: Who wanted him back then?
RF: I mean, you guys are also involved in the game and you can also see for yourself what's going on in the PSL. It's not a secret anymore. The club decided that they needed to sign Caleb and that's why I was called to bring him back. They had to be beaten by Sundowns to make that decision. But in whatever that happened, Caleb didn't get enough chance to prove himself and when he did play, he wasn't getting enough supply. When he did get the balls passed to him, they were difficult and when he missed the pass or whatever, people would then say, "Uyinkomo (You are a cow)." The supporters would then boo the player.
MQ: If you say Ntseki called you in his role as the Head of Technical to bring the player back, why hasn't he retained him now that he is the head coach?
RF: It's the same question I am asking myself. But does he have the power?
MQ: Million-dollar question, who's got the power?
RF: Of course, Kaizer Chiefs (laughs).
MQ: Let's leave it there, brother. Send our regards to Caleb, these things happen in football.
RF: Thanks, my brother, and all the best with your newspaper.
