“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” SuperSport United have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 24 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Ali Ghazal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
“I am grateful for the games, but I did not become a footballer to be somebody else's spare part.” He wants to be at SuperSport United, and 5 appearances in 23 say he has earned the hearing.
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Takalani Mazhamba and SuperSport United agree another 4 years.
Headers, blocks, tackles, interceptions — 35 of them, and not one goal behind him. The sort of performance that never makes a highlight reel and wins football matches.
There are footballers who have a good season and footballers a season is remembered for, and the second kind get their names read out in a hall in the summer. SuperSport United will be quietly delighted and privately nervous.
A season average of 7.06 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. SuperSport United know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
4 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Ali Ghazal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at SuperSport United this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
“The easiest signature of my career.” Thulani Ngcobo and SuperSport United agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
A season average of 7.17 at an age when most of his year group are still in the youth team. SuperSport United know what they have, and so, by now, does everybody else.
Ali Ghazal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ali Ghazal was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Ask anyone on the way out what separated the sides and you will get one name: Mandla Phiri. 2‑0 against Platinum Stars, and the applause at the whistle was mostly his.