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BRIAN SEBAPOLE (PART 1)

Brian Sebapole w as a speedy w inger whom ade his nam e in the colours of Jom o Cosm os during the m id1990’s. Alongside Mozam bicans Tico-Tico Bucuane and Nuro Am iro Tualibudine, the trio form ed a deadly partnership for Ezenkosi. Like the

late Philem on Masinga and Gesond Vilakazi – Dobsy also hails from Klerksdorp and w as part of the Cosm os team that reached the 1996 Bob Save Super Bow lFinal. In 1998, he had a short stint in the MLSw here he played for San Jose Earthquakes before returning to the PSL.

Dobsy, welcome to the pages of Soccer Laduma. Just take us from the beginning of your career, where did it all begin for you?

Before I joined Jomo Cosmos, I wanted to join Kaizer Chiefs, but I couldn’t because I didn’t have money to go for trials at RAU (University of Johannesburg) where their team used to train. The day before I was supposed to attend trials, I walked around Klerksdorp looking for someone who could give me a lift and I couldn’t find anyone. Eventually I bumped into another drunk guy who told me not to worry, he was going to take me to RAU. I was so excited but the following day when I went to his house, I knocked and knocked, and this guy couldn’t wake up. When he finally woke up, he was in a drunken mess. He said to me: ‘Eish, I’m sorry, my brother took the car, and I can’t take you to Chiefs’. I was so disappointed, I felt horrible, I really felt horrible because I wanted to attend those trials so bad. And that is how I missed out on attending trials at Kaizer Chiefs.

But at least you ended up at Jomo Cosmos.

That’s true. In 1995, Jomo Sono came to Klerksdorp to scout for players and he was impressed with what he saw. He invited my amateur team to come to Joburg and play a friendly match against Jomo Cosmos so that he could see who was good and who wasn’t. Fortunately, he sent his driver to come and fetch us because if he didn’t do that, I don’t think we were going to be able to raise money for transport. We went to Joburg, played the friendly match and beat Jomo Cosmos 2-1. Bra J signed me to the reserve team because I was still in Matric at the time. I was very blessed, I left Klerksdorp and moved to Joburg immediately signing my first professional contract. Being a professional player and still attending school was very exciting but of course challenging at times because I didn’t have a lot of money. We had players like Samkelo Jam Jam, the late Vusi Mncwango and Arthur Zwane. I have great memories from my first year there – we were very young and naughty sometimes. I remember one day; we were coming back from training and on our way home there was another car which was driving bad next to us. Samkelo Jam Jam; opened his window and started swearing at the driver of that car. After we reached the traffic lights next to Baragwanath Hospital, that car stopped right next to us on the driver’s side. Those guys opened the door and took out agun–we were all shocked, ha, ha, ha. Next thing, Jam Jam was trying to hide while we were apologising to those guys.

Was Arthur Zwane also inside the minibus with the rest of you?

No, he wasn’t. It was myself, Samkelo Jam Jam, Edson Sithole and few other guys. At that time Arthur had just joined Jomo Cosmos after coming back from Brazil. But eish, Arthur was always fighting with Bra J because of money issues, and that’s when he started to rebel at training as well, ha, ha, ha. Sometimes at training he would dribble everyone and not pass the ball to his teammates. I remember one day; he dribbled everyone from midfield to defence until he came one-onone with our goalkeeper Aime Kitenge. Instead of scoring, Arthur faked a shot and Aime dived to the left. Arthur faked another shot to the right, Aime got up so fast and dived to the right. I think he did that, three times and when he was supposed to score, he just fell to the ground and started laughing at Aime. Yho, Bra J, was so upset and that is when he decided to send Arthur on loan to Dynamos in Venda. We were all laughing at Aime but Bra J, didn’t see anything funny about that.

How was your personal relationship with Bra J?

Ja, it was great, I don’t want to lie. Me and him had a very good relationship, he was always honest with me and I was always honest with him as well – we had a lot of respect for each other.

What do you remember about your professional debut?

It was against Witbank Aces and at the time, I was on top of my game. I think I was one of the fittest players in the league. We travelled there with two minibuses but the one which had all our best players – got lost. Only one minibus made it to the venue on time and, Bra J was very upset, and he was forced to start the game with youngsters including myself. By the time the second minibus arrived, it was already too late to change the team. I started the match next to Tico-Tico Bucuane and Nuro Amiro Taulibudine who were still new in the country. We played and won 2-0, and I assisted Tico-Tico and Nuro in both goals. Nuro was strong and Tico-Tico was very smart. But when they arrived, we had more faith in Nuro than Tico-Tico because Nuro had a lot of energy.

What is your most memorable time at Jomo Cosmos?

I had a lot of great times like reaching the 1996 Bob Save Super Bowl against Orlando Pirates. But my best game was against Kaizer Chiefs at Ellis Park. I remember before I turned professional, I used to have a picture of Simon Magagula against Shakes

Kungwane during the 1992 Coca-Cola Cup Final. I kept that picture on my wall and I said to myself: ‘One day, it will be me playing against Kaizer Chiefs in front of a packed stadium’. So, when it happened it was a dream come true. I saw the moment before it happened. We also went to Greece to play against POAK Thessaloniki just after Andrew Rabutla signed for them. Part of the deal of Andrew joining the Greek team was that we were going to play against that team. Before the match we were so pumped up and excited to play at that stage and ended up losing the match 5-0 because we were all tired. The way they were moving the ball, was amazing. Andrew was playing for them against us and it was good to see him.

How was the mood leading up to the 1996 Bob Super Bowl Final against Orlando Pirates?

You must remember that Jomo Cosmos were party destroyers. If a team was planning a party, Jomo Cosmos would come and destroy everything. All the teams including Mamelodi Sundowns, Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates knew about Cosmos being destroyers. The only reason I came on as a substitute was because Zinto Dube did something that Bra J didn’t like. Zinto also started on the bench but while he was warming up, he turned to the Pirates fans showed them the Pirates skull and crossbones sign. Bra J told him to stop warming and sit down and asked me to come in instead.