Former Bafana Bafana defender, Bongani Khumalo gave credit to a former coach for giving him a voice on the pitch during his playing days.
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The story
SuperSport TV pundit, Bongani Khumalo recently showed appreciation to Matsatsantsa head coach, Gavin Hunt, for helping him come out of his shell.
The 37-year-old came through SuperSport's youth structures, before making his professional debut for the club under Hunt as a 20-year-old in 2007.
In 2010, after a World Cup campaign that saw him score against France, the ex-Bafana Bafana centre-back joined English Premiership outfit, Tottenham Hotspur.
Looking back at how he was misunderstood by the public during his days as a professional football, Khumalo told Robert Marawa how Gavin Hunt thrusted him into the spotlight when making him captain of SuperSport.
"Gavin Hunt has to be thanked because people's perception of me made me shy. It made me kinda withdrawn, I felt like I couldn't be myself. Gavin Hunt is the one that yanked my personality out of me.
"He literally yanked it out of me every training session. [He would say] 'Look at you, you're big, you command, you win headers but you talk like a mouse! I want to hear you, you must be loudest voice on the pitch,' I promise you, he pulled my personality and character in all sorts of different directions," noted Khumalo, who expressed his gratitude to Hunt for preparing him for other challengers he was set to face in his career.
"I was tested mentally. I'm grateful for that because it made me so strong, it made me so strong within my career with the challenges I faced, things that were said, or whatever expectation there was, it was never too much," added Khumalo on Marawa Sports Worldwide.
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