With almost 15 years of playing professional football, Michael Morton isn’t the one for the limelight and he goes about doing his job quietly and with aplomb. It all started at Orlando Pirates, a club closest to his heart, for the midfield strongman, and he has never looked back while winning trophies along the way. But now with his club, Cape Town Spurs, fighting to avoid relegation, Morton is playing a big role in guiding the youngsters to remain focused on the task at hand until the end of the season. In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina, Morton talks about what has kept him going all these years, why some talented footballers have fallen off the train along the way, and why Themba “Mshishi” Zwane is an example of what South African footballers are all about. The 35-year-old also talks about how the Promotional Play-Offs affected Spurs’ planning for the current season.
Masebe Qina: Mike, we see you are into content creation on social media these days, and in one of the videos you made recently you talk about your midfield battles with the former Kaizer Chiefs player Michael Nkambule back in the day. Can you tell us more about that?
Michael Morton: When I was in the Pirates development for seven years, he was with the Chiefs development. Multiple times during the season we would play in those league games against them. We would play those mini derbies and they were very competitive. Whenever I played against him, he was very good. He was a very talented player. I don’t know if it’s good or bad memories, but he gave me a lot of trouble man. Some of the other guys that I played with, who come to mind, are the likes of Thela Ngobeni (Thela) and Sandile Zuke. Zuke played in the middle of the park, and I had tough battles with him. Roger Majafa is another one and he was a little bit young. Mandla Masango is the player I played with in the (junior) national teams.
