Mandela’s humble ‘hero’ on life after football
● I meet Lucas Radebe for a “behind the scenes” breakfast at a Sowetan Magazine cover shoot. He is doing it as part of a campaign with Lay’s, which he and David Beckham are fronting. He is that kind of global celebrity.
He is also the kind of celebrity who generates a level of goodwill wherever he goes. People gravitate to him and he responds with generous grace. Observing him over the course of the shoot I start to get an insight into the kind of leader he is. He is a pro — humble, extremely punctual, and he makes the experience easy for everyone. He is a team player — happy to try on all the clothes and take direction from the editorial team.
And then he brings the magic. He suggests a pair of roguish cowboy boots, taking the images from very nice to seriously unexpected. I start to imagine what he was like as a captain at home and at Leeds: a steady hand at the tiller who you trust to know when to bring the flair.
He has just finished a bowl of granola and yoghurt and is now eating a Fournos croissant. He still has the physique of a pro footballer — lean and athletic — and I ask him if it is a reflection of old habits dying hard. He explains that once you get to a certain age you have to stay healthy. It is a conversation that lends itself to a line of questioning about life after retirement.
“I think it is the worst thing that can happen. Because sometimes, when you are young, when you are at the top of your game, you don’t think about retirement. Because life is so great, you are enjoying each and every moment. But once it comes to an end, once it gets to that level where you have to give up what you’ve done, and the work that you’ve put out in terms of getting your body and fitness to that level, it’s hard.
“Once you’re done it’s a sad life, to be honest. You miss the team, you are lonely. You miss the spotlight. I was still in England when I retired and I still went back to training when they reopened. They kept saying to me, ‘You know you’re retired? You don’t have to be here any more.’ I’m like, ‘OK, but what do I do?’ To be honest, I couldn’t see myself doing anything else.”
He worked it out — primarily by surrounding himself with his management team and reinventing his daily purpose. “I surrounded myself with good people. Those who were in the industry representing me. We started a company. They helped me.
“Because even when I was winding up my career they had to think for me, what do we prepare for him to fall back on? And luckily I didn’t have the time to sit around wondering what to do. I do so many different things, which for me is absolutely brilliant.
“I feel for people who go to the office to do the same thing every day. Nine to five. I can do the shoot and tomorrow I can be somewhere with the kids, playing football, and I could be speaking to corporates, speaking to communities, which gives me pleasure. This is where I come from, and I think it’s worth giving back in the way where I can talk about my experience.
“And sometimes I just have to sit home, with the family, spend time, quality time with the kids.” His youngest is five and, no, he is not putting football pressure on any of them — he thinks it would be unfair.
Radebe grew up in Soweto as one of 11 children and I wonder what he tells young people who aspire to follow in his footsteps. “You need to try and be a holistic person because people look at you today and they think Kaizer Chiefs, Leeds United. But I believe in what you see; that’s why I have to keep myself trim and relevant.
“One thing that’s most important to me are the values that you learn, because we all come from different backgrounds, but you take them for granted and you must use them in your career. And it propels you to greater heights. Try to be yourself. Let nothing change you as an individual. It’s a challenge because of all the temptations.”
Who embodied those values for him as a young man? “There was a moment when Madiba came to meet me. He could have gone anywhere but he came to Leeds, not Manchester, not London. He came to the small city of Leeds, where I was playing. It was absolutely amazing. I had the opportunity to host him that day.
“Showing him the grounds, introducing him to the Leeds people. What a moment in one’s life. He turns back and he tells everybody, ‘This is my hero.’ This is the goosebumps. These are moments that change you forever. These are people who have an impact in people’s lives. I mean, what a great man to make a statement like that. Who else, who else is like him? Nobody’s the same — his values mean that I too want to make a change in people’s lives.”
How much of his success would he attribute to luck and how much to these values? “For me I was lucky to be found, yeah. But I believe you make your own luck. I look back at what life has brought to me and I think maybe it was luck. But luck is not enough.
“I wasn’t the best player, I was one of hundreds and thousands of players all over the country. I had a chance to go and play abroad. I had to work hard. And it’s not just football. It is the values that are important, that you’ve learnt and used, info from the parents that was instilled in you that we took for granted.
“It was tough going to a foreign country and making it work. To adapt your thoughts to the environment, to the cultural traditions. It was very difficult to make sure that every day you were the best player you could be, even when it was snowing, freezing cold. The challenges of being homesick, staying fit week in, week out, all the temptations. It was really difficult. It took more than just raw talent.”
He reflects on the challenges facing the young crop of players now. “Sometimes I know those players won’t last long. I don’t blame them. People don’t realise what it takes. It takes hard work, not just on the field, but all these challenges surrounding you, temptation around you.
“You have to be so resilient to focus on what you want to achieve. You know that you can’t play football forever. There’s a time when you’re gonna have to give it up and that’s the worst. It’s a different challenge. You’ve got different responsibilities. All the years you’ve been making babies, all the years you’ve been gathering, buying things and making investments — it’s time now to make sure you can sustain it. I think it’ sa challenge for current players. They want to be in the limelight but at the same time they want to be out there living a lavish lifestyle. But to succeed we have to live like monks.”
And then this former monk gets up and demonstrates what his values really mean. He goes around the room thanking everyone on the team personally and saying goodbye before he leaves. I am starting to see Madiba’s point.