The cheap use of the word ‘legend’ is an insult to those who, to this day, bear the emotional scars of playing pro football in an era when passion was the name of the game and yet the financial rewards were so laughably scant. That over the years we’ve been turned down by countless legends whose bitterness with how the game they gave so much to failed to return the favour, speaks volumes. And when we called in on Sam Magalefa last week Friday, nothing could have prepared us for the mind-blowing conversation about the highs and lows of a career that began at Wits University in 1998, took him to SuperSport United and ended at Jomo Cosmos. No wonder his middle name is Job, he suffered so much. Admirably, though, he took it all in his stride. The next seven weeks will leave you heartbroken like a jilted lover, then giggling like you have no debit orders, and then shocked like you’ve been hit by Stage 8 loadshedding!
Sammy, we haven’t caught up with you in a while. Where on earth have you been?
Ngisazivalele la e (I’m hiding here in) Kagiso, but I’ve been doing ‘up and down’ in Mafikeng as well. I’ve been busy with the Sam Magalefa Foundation. What we do, we donate school shoes to needy learners at schools. So, I’m doing provinces nowadays, having started out locally. I’ve done Limpopo, I’ve done North West, next year I’m doing Bloemfontein. So far, so good. The donations have been going so well. We’ve already donated more than 4 000 school shoes.
