ABEDNIGO MOSIATLHAGA - UNATTACHED

We must say that judging by the stories you shared last week, Patrick Mabedi the coach sounds nothing like Patrick Mabedi the player, ha, ha, ha. We hope you have more to share about him!

Ha, ha, ha, yeah, he was a character. I remember this one time, we played against Mbombela United in the league. I made a mistake towards the end of the game. I should have passed the ball instead of taking a shot. After that moment, the referee blew the final whistle. Then Mabedi was mad at me. I think he didn’t talk to me for, like, a week or something like that. But he was on my case. I remember when every atin tacker made a mistake training, he would blow the whistle and stop training. Then he would say, “Where is Abedi?” He used to call me “Abedi”.

Well, no wonder he hard on you, a lot is pected from a player nicknamed after the great Abedi Pele…

Then he would say, “You see, they are learning from you.”

He was really coming for you!

was ex

Ha, ha, ha, yeah. I remember there was this day when I was not even training. So, Lespeople vin Stoffels was taking on at training and he was supposed to pass the ball. I was sitting by the physio’s table next to the field. He stopped the training and he asked the guys, “Where is Abedi? Where is he?” The guys pointed towards me and said I was injured. He came towards the physio’s table and then he said, “Look at what is happenyou.” ing, he is learning from Ha, ha, ha!

You just couldn’t catch when you were not training.

a break, even

I was so frustrated because it was just one mistake. He was the most difficult person to play under, but at the same time he was a good person. It was so interesting working with him. I can write a book about him.

Sure. Go on then.

There was this time when we were struggling to get results. He didn’t always worry about how players felt, like I said in last week’s edition. We were due to travel to Durban to play two matches, on a Wednesday and a Saturday. So, he called a meeting to announce the squad. Before he announced the squad, he was like, “I need men who are going to go with me to war in Durban and come back with six points.” Then he said, “If you are not in this 20-man squad, it means you are a woman. Back then, when men went to war, the women stayed behind and looked after the children and cleaned the house. So, I am going to take 20 players and we are going to leave all the women to stay behind and clean our houses. I am only taking 20 men to war.”

Ha, ha, ha, it must have made you guys feel very anxious and want to be part of that squad, for whatever it was worth. Here’s the million-dollar question: Did you make the final team? Fortunately, I was part of the squad.

You’re the man!

I was relieved that I was one of the guys counted as men who were going to war, ha, ha, ha. It was funny how he said it. We just laughed about it because we knew what type of coach we had. He was not someone who would beat about the bush, he would tell it like it was. But we also felt that you can’t say that to players because if a player is not in the squad, then he will think he is a woman. It was just interesting times with him when he was the coach at All Stars.

Moving on, what about the time you spent at Ajax Cape Town, now known as Cape Town Spurs?

There’s a funny story I can remember from when I was at Ajax. There was a guy named Mohau Mokate. He is a big, strong guy and his nickname is “The Hulk”.

That means he really is big, ha, ha, ha…

No one wanted to challenge him physically because he was built up. So, this one time, he came to training with a blue eye, and we were all wondering what could have happened to him. Who could moer (beat up) “The Hulk”. It was crazy. He was this strong guy. So, he did not want to tell anybody what happened and the coach, Calvin

Marlin, called him in to have a talk. Marlin was the caretaker coach at the time. I think he told coach Calvin that he fell and that he was hit by a window… something like that. So, Calvin came to the team meeting, and he said, “I thought I had a team of brothers.” He said it with a serious face. Then he said, “No one is willing to help Mohau fight against windows.” Ha, ha, ha. It was crazy because he said it with a straight face, and everybody was making fun of him for the whole week. We kept on saying that only a window could beat him up, no one else could beat him up!

Geez, you guys must have had a putty… aargh, party… teasing him that whole week.

Ha, ha, ha. It was such a funny story, and the guys had a good laugh.

Ha, ha, ha. Abedi, thank you so much for opening for us a window into life as a professional footballer when the TV cameras are switched off. Just like your former teammates, we have been ‘learning from you’ these past two weeks.

Ha, ha! Thank you so much for the opportunity.