Benni McCarthy remains the only South African to have featured in, and won, the UEFA Champions League title. The Manchester United first team coach recently had a tell-all moment in which he relived one of the toughest moments of his life.
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McCarthy recently sat down with UEFA.TV and talked all things Champions League, a title he won with Portuguese giants FC Portio under the guidance of the man affectionately known as the 'Special One' in Jose Mourinho.
The worst moment of my life...
I think at 12 years old, we were playing football just on the streets in the area where we lived. We always had the football goals painted, so that was like our little Wembley. And then all of a sudden, we just heard this couple of loud bangs. There were maybe about four or five gunshots. One of our closest friends, he was just lying there, not moved a muscle. And then he got shot in the head. That was the most brutal and hardest moment in my life as a kid. There was nothing on this earth that was going to stop me from becoming what I wanted to become.
Meeting Jose Mourinho...
"Meeting with Jose and then he just told me, like, he's excited. He just told me, 'how you trained there when you were at Celta Vigo?' If you can play just the way you trained there, we will win the league, we will win the Champions League." I thought to myself, this guy is so confident. Honest to God, he was the most incredible thing I've ever come across. I had the most fun. The days where I enjoy it, where I loved my job, where I loved my occupation. I'm putting on a blue and white Porto shirt. I'm Portista true and true. I think if you cut me, my blood's not red - it's blue.
Missing out on the Champions League final...
I was eventually gonna come in, but I didn't know I was gonna come in when the score was already 3-0 and we won the Champions League.
Inspiring The Next Generation...
I'm the only one South African to have ever played in a Champions League final. I achieved what no one even dreamed of. Hopefully one day now that will inspire so many other young South Africans to also know that they are well capable of making them, because if Benni can make it and he's probably from a far worse area than where a lot of them come from, there's a chance there's hope, you know? So I always wanted to give South Africans that hope that we could also do it.
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