‘It is time to stop’
It was actually at the end of the 1998/99 season that Gordon had initially thought about hanging up his boots but which coach would allow a key defender who had put in a shift of 34 games with a return of three goals, to walk away from the game?
So, it was only normal that Lathan convinced him to stay on for another season.
“I thought about it and felt then that I was still enjoying going to training it, so I gave it another year. However, as you keep going to training you begin to feel your body and mind telling you that you are not in it anymore, so it is time to stop because I am not doing my best and it is not helping my teammates. It was easier for me to stop because I had a business, unlike most guys who stay on and on because they need the money.
“I established my business wh hile I was playing and so ran n it while I was still on the e pitch. Even though it wa as small then, it was bond, unlike the other guys who find it harder to give it up because they still need that money,” he explains, before revealing what he earned back then.
“When I started, I was earning R800 every month and when I retired, I had moved to about R10 000, though it could go up in a good month with bonuses. It wasn’t a lot of money, so I didn’t have to rely on it.
“Nowadays players easily earn six figures. I even remember that Terry Paine was in the [England 1966] World Cup squad but didn’t make so much out of the game.
A lot of the players from back then didn’t make much money,” he says.
So, having retired he focused all his energy on the electrical business as it grew.
“At the moment it seems a bit dicey with what is going on with the coronavirus but at one stage I employed 20 people, so that is how it grew. It has kept me going through the years and that is what matters. When I started the business, I had a brother Collin who did his electrician apprenticeship while I was playing and then worked for me for a while before going on his own.
“AT THE AGE THAT I WAS, I WAS HAPPY WITH WHAT I HAD ACHIEVED IN THE GAME.”