Soccer Laduma's 'In Touch' 'Still In Touch' feature has been a fan favourite for almost two decades in Soccer Laduma's weekly newspaper.
Millions of readers turn to it first each week to read the crazy stories that Mzansi's former players tell and to see current soccer stars dish the dirt on their teammates and coaches.
Over the years, together with our readers, we have laughed uncontrollably and gasped with disbelief at stories that have never been told before!
Due to the incredible success and reading pleasure over the years and the timeless nature of this incredible content, Soccer Laduma has dug through the archives to bring back to life some of the gems you may have missed, or simply want to re-read and share with your friends.
This week, we look back to 20 September 2017 in issue number 1041, where Gerald Modabi goes back in time, remembering his early days at SuperSport United playing alongside characters such as Michael Utting, Cavaan Sibeko and Seuntjie Motlhajwa. Quite a funny character himself, the former midfield man also has some brilliant stories on the one and only Jacob 'Cellular' Sakala.
Yes, bro, and different clubs had different characters. I remember after Bruce Grobelaar arrived to coach us at SuperSport United, we went away on some teambuilding exercise and that was my first helicopter ride. But it was lovely. It was a joyride. The place where we were at started being flooded, so we needed to evacuate ourselves. Yet, in the middle of all of that, Japie Motale decided ukuthi (that) he's going to try and jump into the flood so he could get free MTN caps. It was really funny because we were getting away from this place and the guys were wondering why he's running after free caps when he's earning more than R30 000 a month. Football players will freak you out. He was very crazy by nature. We had a female team doctor, Mamosilo Lichaba. You can imagine ukuthi over the years she got used to seeing footballers walking around in the dressing room, but Japie went an extra mile by showing off his crown jewels. He would literally stand right in front of her and start doing stretching exercises in the nude, ha, ha, ha. Between you and me, Japie is not a very short guy, if you know what I mean.
She downplayed it, maybe because this guy had been doing it every day for over three seasons.
Look, there was very nice camaraderie at the club, especially for us youngsters starting out. I remember when I got my first pay cheque I was so excited. I had planned to buy only a TV set that month. I then also bought a brand new cell phone. Such was the excitement that I think I must have finished my salary on the same day I got it. I was literally left with 61 cents in my pocket, ha, ha. Now I did not have money to go to training for the whole month. My peers Cavaan Sibeko and Seuntjie Motlhajwa used to send money back home and now they also had an extra responsibility to 'take care' of me. So this one time they decided to leave me behind without saying a word and I never heard the end of it from Pitso Mosimane, who was our assistant coach at the time. He was always on my back. When I bought my first car, I didn't want him to find out because he didn't want youngsters buying cars. I used to park it some distance from the training ground, but I would still be late for training because of all the walking I had to do, ha, ha. Someone told him that I had bought a car and he asked me all sorts of questions about it. He asked, "How do you buy a VW Golf VR6 at your age when John Moeti has 28 Bafana Bafana caps and is driving a Honda? You haven't even scored for SuperSport, but you already have a car." From then on, my relationship with him was shaky. But today we're fine and I get a lot of advice from him, since I'm a young coach.
Our goalkeeper Michael Utting, was a character. He was once found in a lake. His car had fallen over on the side of the bridge, rolled down and got stuck in the mud. We thought he had died, until they found him with so much mud on his face. He enjoyed his night out.
What a season I had there! That's the best I've ever had in South African football. I remember once, Pat Malabela decided to change coaches and brought back Jacob Sakala, but he didn't tell us about this. But we knew there was going to be a coaching announcement. At training, we started with our normal warm-up and all that. All of us were worried about who the new man in charge was going to be. I mean, if you are guaranteed a place in the team, the arrival of a new coach is the last thing you look forward to. That's beside the fact that I think the starting line-up was drafted by Malabela, ha, ha. As we were busy warming up, we saw him parking his car. He came out of the car with this guy wearing a suit. We then realised this was Sakala, ha, ha, ha. Malabela then told him to address the team. Next thing we know, Sakala embarks on a loud prayer. He instructed us to close our eyes so he could pray for the improvement of the team and for salaries to be paid on time. He emphasised that he was a pastor now and everything would start with prayer. Vusi Dlamini and I decided, "No, no, no, angazosihlanyela lo (he must be mad), we are not going to close our eyes." We were staring at him while he was praying and, before even finishing with his prayer, he opened his eyes to check who had his eyes open. It was such a strange and funny moment when our eyes met his.
They then gave him a club car to drive around as the coach. He forgot to take out the spare key of the car, so he was driving around with two keys of the same car. One time after training, he sent me to fetch something in his car. I then saw this key and realised ukuthi it looks like the one you use to drive, so I decided to start the car just to check. The car indeed started. So I took that key and kept it. That was until I saw his car parked outside one tavern. Opportunity doesn't come knocking twice, you see. I was with Dlamini and I drove the car and parked it some distance away. We went back to the tavern where he was drinking and Sakala was so excited to see us. He was sitting with some ladies. He was like, "Jomo, wozani nizohlala nami (come and sit with me)!" Little did he know he had a huge problem waiting for him outside.To think that he was scared of Pat Malabela the name, without even seeing the face, worsened his ordeal. A bit later, we said to him, "Eish, Coach, we don't have cash on us. We just want to go home, get some money and come back here and buy Jack Daniels." He used to call it Jackie Daniels, ha, ha, ha. Typical Zambian. We went out of the joint... and there's no car! The coach was in tears, literally. He asked us how he could get to the police station so he could open a case and tell Malabela he was hijacked. I was dying inside my stomach with laughter.
One, he was sweating like nobody's business. Two, he had to use his sweaty hands to wipe his tears. Sweet mother of God! We realised this guy was going to kill us for almost causing him a heart attack if we told him the real story, so we had to make a plan. We said we'd call a friend to come and pick us up to go to the police station. In the meantime, we suggested going back to the tavern while waiting for this guy. While we were inside, I secretly gave Dlamini the keys to go and fetch the car. He parked it outside and came back to join us. I then said, "Let's go and wait for our friend outside." When we got to the car park, there was the car. Oh, the relief on Sakala's face! He said, "I've always told you about Limpopo people and witchcraft. This car flew off and now it's flown back." Ha, ha, ha. Well, it's only today, in Soccer Laduma that Sakala will be finding out the real story behind the disappearance and re-appearance of the car.
Best player I've ever faced: Gift Leremi
Best player I've played with: Myself
Biggest pay cheque: R38 000
Smallest pay cheque: R1 500
Favourite current player: Happy Jele
Current occupation: Founder of Crucial Zone Free Kick Centre
Former teams: SuperSport United, Silver Stars, Orlando Pirates Jomo Cosmos, Bidvest Wits, Dynamos
