McCarthy began his football career at Bloemfontein Celtic in 1997 and thereafter caught the attention of two of the biggest clubs in the country, Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns, where he won numerous trophies. He retired in 2011 after a stint with Mpumalanga Black Aces. "After Aces went down, I decided to stop playing, but not immediately. It took me half-a-season to decide. There were a lot of offers from First Division teams, but I told myself, look, when I came up to the PSL, I never came via the First Division, so let me stop here and walk away from the game," he says.
Fabian, thanks for your time. Where would you say you enjoyed your football most?
Obviously where I made a name for myself, became a household figure and won competitions was at Kaizer Chiefs. But don't write off the two teams I was with before Chiefs, and that is Bloemfontein Celtic and Mamelodi Sundowns. They are trying to write a book for Ntate Petrus Molemela and they asked me to add something in there. So what I'm saying is that Celtic was my foundation, you know. That was my first club, I still feel something for the team and I still follow them. At Sundowns I just became better and at Chiefs the house was completed. I put the roof on, I put nice ceiling, everything. I grew as a player and a person at the three teams, although I enjoyed myself at all the teams I played for.
Let's talk about your spell at Chiefs. Who was your roommate?
You will be laughing, but you know at Chiefs, every time they signed a new player, that player would share a room with me... like Collins Mbesuma and Gert Schalkwyk. Shoes Moshoeu and I signed at the same time, so we were roommates for that whole season. I was sharing with Rowen Fernandez, Serge Djiehoua and Shaun Bartlett, so I didn't really have a specific roommate. I had to welcome the guys, make them feel at home and tell them, "Look, this is how we do it here." Maybe I wasn't fussy when it came to sharing a room, but the two guys I never shared a room with are 'Spoko' (Sibusiso Dlamini) and my best friend 'Stiga' (Stanton Fredericks).
Apparently Fernandez farts a lot...
Ha, ha, ha, yeah! Look, that boy is funny, man. That mlungu is something else. He'll wet your bed and do all the funny things. I guess that's how they used to do it at Wits where he came from, so you can't blame him. He would leave a bucket full of water on top of your door and when you open the door... luckily, I was with him, so he couldn't do that to me. We were doing it at Brian Baloyi, Stiga and the other players' rooms. I was just supporting him, ha, ha, ha. But what a nice guy, what a cool guy. I can't understand why he's not playing regularly at SuperSport United. It's sad, but well, I'm not in charge of that. What a keeper as well. Bobby Motaung gave him the nickname 'Clean Sheet' at Chiefs.
Tell us about the characters in the team back then.
You had 'Skhokho' (Cyril Nzama), Jabu 'Shuffle' Pule (now Mahlangu) and Jabulani Mendu. Mendu was funny and crazy.
A lot of people never really understood Mendu's character though.
You know, that man, I call him a true friend. I knew him from when I was on trial at the Chiefs academy and he was playing for the reserve side. His nickname was 'S-Curl' by then but now he's got s**t dreadlocks, so I don't know what happened, ha, ha, ha. What a true friend. I speak to him every day and we're hustling together. People won't understand him but he speaks his mind, he speaks the truth and that's how he is. People can say he's arrogant and all that, but for me, I say he's a true friend. I can take a bullet for him any time. The same with Stiga. I know if I'm not there, they have my back.
There must have been a couple of funny incidents...
The one that comes to mind is the late Scara Ngobese. I think one time we were at the airport and somebody was phoning him. I just heard him say to this person, "Hey maan, I'm here at the door plane." Ha, ha, ha. The other time we were in Mauritius and we were standing in the queue for breakfast. Obviously it was an international hotel, so those guys understood English. He wanted to say he wanted an egg, it must be well done and they must break the yolk. So the guy opened the egg and then put it on the pan.
So Scara was saying, "Kill this thing maan!" The guy was asking, "What?" and Scara showed him the yolk and said, "Kill that thing so that it spreads." Ha, ha, ha. Patrick Mayo was also funny, man. Whenever we got time to go out after a game, I always enjoyed his company. Shuffle was a teaser. You could see him when he was in a good mood. He'd tease everybody, especially those who were serious, like Patrick Mabedi. During the Olympic Games he was always telling me, "Hey, mfana, you must come to Chiefs."
And your most embarrassing moment?
Eish, bra! You mean on the field? Obviously I think it's when I scored an own goal in New Zealand when we were playing the Olympics qualifiers. But I made up for it after that in the second half. I contributed to the goals. Benni McCarthy scored one and Quinton Fortune scored the other and we won 2-1. That was the only own goal I remember in my whole career, unlike Siphiwe Mkhonza who would shaya (score) own goals now and then. He would score two in one game, ha, ha.
Have you ever used muti?
My brother, I don't actually want to talk about it. All I can say is that when I made my debut in the professional ranks, I had a good game against Vaal Professionals and after that I didn't play for five months. I didn't know why or what went wrong, until I did the muti rituals. In our soccer, it's a culture. It's part of the game. You understand? I'm not going to say which team used the most and which team used the less, but if you have to do it, you have to do it. All I can say is that I never got cut by anybody and I never drank anything. But for me that was a big challenge. It's a sensitive issue, personally and spiritually. I came to understand that this is a culture of South African football and some clubs. People believe in it in this and that way.
Tavern of Legends Fun Facts:
Best player I've ever faced: Sibusiso Zuma Bradley August
Best player I've played with: Too many to mention
Biggest pay cheque: No comment
Smallest pay cheque: R1 000
Former team that used the most muti: I can't say.
Favourite current player: George Maluleka Granwald Scott
Current occupation: Coaching at Wits University
Former teams: Bloemfontein Celtic, Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs, Moroka Swallows, Maritzburg United, Mpumalanga Black Aces
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