REID BOMBAY - UNATTACHED (PART 1)

Howzit Reid? It’s great to have you with us this week and we cannot wait to hear what you have to share with us. Without wasting any time, let’s entertain the Soccer Laduma readers with some hilarious stories… Thank you for the opportunity and I am good, thank you. Most of the stories I have to share are from my time at Stellenbosch FC because that’s where I also got to make my debut. I worked with coach P while I was at Stellenbosch. Coach Pernell McKop is his name, but we call him coach P or Big P. There was one day when he did not check the messages on his phone, or he never got the message. So, we were all at training. The outfield players went their way, and the goalkeepers went their way. We were wondering why coach P was not there and we thought maybe he was not feeling well. But we kept on training and did the warm-up ourselves as goalkeepers. About 10 minutes later, coach P came there, and he was like, ‘F**k, how come I never even read my messages?’ He was waiting for us at Lentelus (Sports Grounds) but we were all at Danie Craven that day, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. So, he went to the wrong venue because he did not read his messages?

Yes, he went to another venue. He was waiting for about 10 minutes there and it turned into half-an-hour. He was waiting there, but he did not see any buses coming, until Angelo (Kerspuy) phoned him to ask ‘Why are you not at training? The guys are all here at Danie Craven’, ha, ha, ha.

He was like, ‘No, coach, you can’t do that’, ha, ha, ha. What’s even more funny is that he ended up coming to training with no gloves, no boots… nothing. He didn’t even come

prepared for training.

Ha, ha, ha. That’s crazy. Why would he do that?

I think it was because Liverpool had lost the previous night. So, we were like: “Did you leave your stuff because Liverpool lost?” He is a big Liverpool supporter. If you check his Facebook page, you will see that he is always criticising Manchester United. I am a Manchester United fan, so if United lost on the weekend and we had training on Monday, I know that he would be on my case. Lee Langeveldt and I support Man United, and then coach P and Sage Stephens support Liverpool. We knew that if Liverpool lost, then we would work extra hard on Monday.

He would punish you for Liverpool’s losses…

Yes, ha, ha, ha. We would do hard training. I would say: “Coach,

I know Liverpool lost, but calm down. It’s not our fault that Liverpool lost”, ha, ha, ha.

Hectic!

If Man United lost and Liverpool won, then we would never hear the end of it. If Liverpool lost, we knew that it would be a long week for us. That’s how he kept the camaraderie in the goalkeeping department.

Did you ever watch a Liverpool and Manchester United game with him in the same room?

We would never watch it together because he lived in a different area to where Stellenbosch is. We would just wait for Monday, but I can imagine what it would have been like to watch a game with him. I am sure it would have been crazy, judging by how he criticises Man United on social media. It tells me a lot about what he is like when he is watching a game, ha, ha, ha. He is a funny character and there was never a dull moment with him. But he is a top coach. He is very caring and helpful. I learnt a lot from him because he guided me and kept me on the path of becoming a better goalkeeper. He’s a true father figure.

Ha, ha, ha. Sounds like he is such a character and a great guy to be

around. Tell us a bit more about your time at Stellenbosch…

There were times when we would play in Joburg or Polokwane and we would have a mini golf tournament. Some guys in the team were not good at golf. You would get guys who would just hit balls and they would go all over the place. They would just go in different directions, and we would just say to them, ‘Stick to what you know, please, because this is not for you’, ha, ha, ha.

Golf is not an easy sport…

And it’s not for everybody. That’s why coach Steve (Barker) would say: “If you want to be a selfish player or you want to play alone, why don’t you just go play tennis or golf? Then you can play for yourself”. That’s what he used to say, ha, ha, ha.

He makes a lot of sense, ha, ha, ha. Thank you so much for your time this week, Reid. We can’t wait to hear more from you next week. Thank you.