Still In Touch With... ALOIS BUNJIRA

(PART 2)

Alois, this is a great story, half of which was shared in last week’s edition. So, you’ve just signed a lifechanging contract with Mamelodi Sundowns, but you haven’t told your club Bidvest Wits about it. You are on your way to Zimbabwe to spend off-season with family, travelling with teammate Charles Yohane (bless his soul). A call then comes through. Who is it?

It was my Bidvest Wits coach, Roger De Sa. I was very close to Roger and we got on so well. It felt so bad, but at that moment I couldn’t help but do it. I pretended there was a break in network and then switched off the phone. Whatever was happening, I couldn’t handle it right away that time. I was going to call Mike (Makaab, his agent) and ask him to talk to Roger. Indeed, when I got to Beitbridge and bought another Zimbabwe line, I then called Mike and told him the story. I asked him to talk to Bidvest Wits about the whole deal. He agreed. An hour later, I got a call from the Sundowns team manager, Peter Koutroulis. In his Greek accent, he said, “Bhunjiraaa, this is Peter Koutroulis. Welcome to Mamelodi Sundowns, my man. I will call you in two weeks and tell you the programme for pre-season. Enjoy the holidays.” I said thank you and dropped the phone. That was also the time I got to tell Charles what was happening. I could feel his heart sinking. It is news that he never wanted to hear, let alone that he didn’t expect it. He wouldn’t have wanted me to leave him at Wits. But there was nothing I could do. It was done. Koutroulis called me a few weeks later and told me the day to report to Sundowns for training at Chloorkop.

Finally, you were now a Sundowns player. The dream had come true.

I arrived on time and we trained for about a week at Chloorkop. That was the time I met Sashi Chalwe, who was also new at the club. This is the man who became my best friend at Sundowns. One day I will tell you stories about Sashi… ha, ha, ha, ha.

Please, ha, ha, ha! We still can’t get over the one you told us involving you two and the twins you met at some hotel. Apparently Sashi tried to ‘score a goal’ there while you went to sleep, but being a defender, we’re not sure whether he put it over the bar or it was even on target, ha, ha, ha. No, we can’t wait for more funny stories on the Zambian. Go on… A week later, we travelled to Durban for the pre-season camp at Umhlanga Rocks. It was at the camp that I reWits ceived a call from the team manager, Derek Blanckensee, wishing me all the best. What a great, honourable man. I apologised for leaving the club the way I did. He understood that there was no way I was going to turn the offer down. He admitted that they were not going to offer me what Sundowns had offered. I then said to him, “But you know what, Derek. The best thing I can do for Bidvest Wits is to propose that you take a player that plays exactly like me and will give you almost as much as you got fr omme.I have my best friend in Zimbabwe, Stewart Murisa. He is playing at Highlanders now. He is just a duplicate of me. Get h imandyou will not miss me.” Derek then said, “That sounds like a good idea. Give me his contact details.” I gave him Stewart’s details, and a week later the man was in South Africa. Derek was so much impressed with what they saw in Stewart that he called me again and said “Gazza, thank you for giving us Stewart. He is a darn good player.” I said , “Indeed. You are welcome.” It felt really good that I had at least appeased the people at Wits. I could start my new life at Sundowns at peace. And what a great start I had at the club. I was on the bench for the first ever official match at Sundowns, in the Top 8 quarterfinal match against Jomo Cosmos, but Dan Semake got injured during the warm-up and I replaced him from the beginning. I had a great game and scored the winning goal, on my debut, in the 2-1 win. My life at Sundowns was up and running.

What a fantastic story. All’s well that ends well, all’s well that ends well.

True. At this rate, we might just have to recruit you as a fortnightly or monthly columnist for Soccer Laduma, bringing us all those fascinating behind-the-scenes anecdotes from your storied career. In fact, not many people know that you are actually a journalist… Yeah! I think my love for writing started in Primary School, where I used to enjoy writing compositions and I was the best English student at the school. In High School, I carried on with the passion for writing essays and compositions, and I was once again the best English student at the school. I also used to read a lot of novels. I read all kinds of novels from The Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, Mills & Boon, James Hardley Chase, Danielle Steel, John Grisham, James Bond, Sidney Sheldon, etc. The first-ever novel I read was The Kon-Tiki Expedition, which I got as an English language prize in Grade 3. I went on to read almost every pacesetter I could lay my hands on. It got deeper when I was introduced to English literature in Form 3. I naturally became the best English literature student at the school, doing set books like The River Between and Macbeth. Oh yes, I also grew up reading newspapers as our neighbought bour a newspaper every day. He would bring the paper to me when he came back from work because he knew I loved reading and also loved to cut the soccer pictures as well as tennis pictures from the back page, ha, ha, ha.

Right.

I think the newspaper editors first noticed my English speaking skills in interviews after matches. Then I was first approached by the Sunday Standard to have a football column about SA-based Zim footballers. My column was called Far Post. I was poached by the Sunday Mail and the name changed to Near Post, ha, ha, ha. I stopped writing for the paper when I got busy upon my return to Zimbabwe. The Herald approached me to start writing for them on a freelance basis and I only stopped recently. Upon my return to Zimbabwe, I was approached to come on board at a new commercial radio station, ZIFM Stereo, as a sports presenter, every weekday from 18h00 to 19h00. I have been with the station for the past 11 years. I also do football analysis for Zimbabwe television, while I also do many occasional football analysis for several newspapers here in Zimbabwe. In addition, I have my own two online football shows. I first started with Bhora Lethu, which was mainly a football analysis show, previewing and reviewing Zimbabwe football and footballers. This one was sponsored by Econet Wireless. Then I also stayed In Touch With A Legend, which is a show of football legends narrating their football journeys. This one is sponsored by Nyaradzo Group. Currently, I also enjoy writing snippets of my football history on social media. I’m also putting together material for a book on my football life. Basically, I am working in the journalism industry, all self-taught. I graduated in Information Technology and marketing, but my passion is in writing and media. Well, I am also coaching football and recently branched into fitness coaching.

Amazing. Keep writing, keep doing the good work. And don’t forget those Sashi Chalwe stories hey… Ha, ha, ha! Thank you very much, my brother.