TONIC CHABALALA

Mention ‘battle hardened’, and a former player who perfectly fits the bill is …

TONIC Chabalala was neither a flashy player nor did he play beautiful football, but he knew how to play the role of central defender. When instructed to do a manmarking job he would gladly do so, and in one Soweto Derby played a decade ago while he was still at Orlando Pirates he silenced Collins Mbesuma, then in the form of his life. “As a player you need to be honest with yourself and play according to your strengths,” acknowledges Chabalala. “I always made sure that I did my homework. As long as I was fit I knew how to deal with all types of strikers.” The tough defender started off his career in his home province at Dynamos before winning a move to Pirates in 2004, going on to spend four years there, after which he found himself packing his bags for Thanda Royal Zulu. “I am grateful that football took me from Limpopo and improved my life. The only thing that I am not happy about from my time at Pirates is that I never won many medals – I was really unfortunate but I am glad that I played a part in laying the foundation for the success in later years. “I have runners-up medals but the only winners’ medal is from the Vodacom Challenge. But I enjoyed my time in the game and it gives me a smile that people still recognize me in the malls,” he says. Now 36, Chabalala last played in the professional ranks four years ago with Hanover Park which was his last club after another brief stint with Dynamos during a depressing spell at the tail of his playing career. “I didn’t want to keep forcing it when it was clear that it just wasn’t working anymore. I realized that I didn’t want to keep calling coaches and club bosses in search of work or even joining disorganised clubs. I was tired of being viewed as being desperate,” recalls Chabalala. His playing career over, he knew that life still had to go on so he set up a small business which struggled at first, but he says; “I am doing just fine because my small business helps get whatever little I need for my family. Football-wise, I was involved with an academy in Radiokop and of late I am helping out a school in Bassonia. I still go to Orlando to watch Pirates when I am not busy.” Chabalala says he has “learnt to let go of that bitterness that most ex-professionals have about football… most former players are bitter that football is no longer doing anything for them. I always tell them that football owes none of us anything. The reality is that not all of us who played the game can be accommodated after we stop playing; not all of us can have long careers like Lucky Lekgwathi and not all of us can become coaches.”