Star ridiculed:
Warriors' talisman in the eye of a vicious onslaught
KHAMA BILLIAT has turned to King David’s prayer as he battles a vicious onslaught launched on him by the South African media where the Warriors talisman is being portrayed as a hopelessly wayward footballer whose career is dramatically veering off course because of questionable professionalism.
There are even mounting calls from the media for his club Mamelodi Sundowns to dump him from their ranks amid reports Billiat has allegedly become toxic to the dressing room because of his alleged lack of discipline which includes, but not limited to, arriving at training sessions in a drunken state.
The Zimbabwe international forward, who turns 27 in a month’s time, has turned from “Golden Boy to Bad Boy” in some sections of the South African media who have been feasting on him in the last few days since the Sunday Times published an article last weekend which painted a graphic image of Billiat being a footballer who has lost his way.
The Sunday Times threw the first big punch when it said, based on reports from multiple sources, it had uncovered that Sundowns president Patrice Motsepe and coach Pitso Mosimane had been advised to get rid of the ‘’errant’’ Zimbabwean because of his alleged wayward behaviour with the newspaper saying: Multiple well-placed sources at the club have said that Billiat has on numerous occasions arrived at the club base in Chloorkop under the influence of
alcohol and often falls foul of the law because of his reckless lifestyle.
Sundowns have put a lid on Billiat’s wayward ways because both Motsepe and Mosimane have a soft spot for him.
In a bid to keep him on the straight and narrow, the technical team includes Billiat in match squads even though he is not part of the selected team so they can keep a close eye on him.
• Billiat is accused of arriving at training on numerous occasions under the influence of alcohol, being involved in a fight with bouncers at a popular Rosebank nightclub, club officials have bailed him out on numerous occasions at the police station after he was arrested for domestic violence and drinking and driving.
The body corporate at the luxury estate where he stays in Kyalami have lodged many complaints about noise as a result of his partying lifestyle, fighting with security officials at Loftus after he arrived at the venue as a non-playing member “in a drunken state” and the incident prompted the technical team to force him to attend camp even when he was not part of the playing squad.
He is not resting enough and on one night early this year he was robbed of a luxury watch and an undisclosed amount of money at gunpoint at a convenience store in Kyalami after midnight during the week.
The club’s protection of Billiat has infuriated and divided his teammates who have accused the officials of treating him with kid gloves compared to other errant players.
Another newspaper, The Citizen, joined in the feast yesterday and said Billiat could now be sold because of his wayward behaviour.
‘’Mamelodi Sundowns may be forced to sell khama Billiat to a Saudi Arabian team to avoid a dirty war with the player’s representatives,’’ the newspaper said adding it had ‘’learnt that Billiat’s representatives have accused the club of dirty tricks after media reports emerged suggesting the 26-year-old had attended one of the training sessions while under the influence of alcohol’’.
That Sundowns have not dared to go on record to dismiss the stories and defend Billiat has fed the theory that the club appears to have throw the Zimbabwean forward to the media wolves and the club could be the source of the damaging stories.
Interestingly, the Pretoria club quickly leapt to defend themselves when they were accused of withholding Billiat, who was injured, from a call to join the Warriors ahead of their 2019 AFCON qualifier against Liberia last month.
Saudi club Al Nasr are reported to be interested in Billiat but Sundowns are believed to have placed a $3 million buyout clause on the forward.
Yesterday Billiat, who rejects all the allegations against him, appeared to find solace in King David’s prayer.
“Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting, ??Psalms? ?139:23-24,’’ the Zimbabwean posted on his Facebook account. ‘’#InGodwetrust#’’ closed Billiat. So, what does this mean? ‘’In asking God to search me, I am inviting Him also to open my heart so that I might receive the conviction of His Spirit. I am saying, ‘Point out anything in me that offends you, and I will listen to you!” an expert argues.
‘’Again, it implies an intense anxiety to be perfect as God would have him to be — conformed to the holy will of God. Observe, he prays that his heart may be searched to see if there was anything wicked within, and to be led in the way everlasting, which plainly implies that he was willing to be led to abandon all evil.
‘’An individual who makes such a request as this must have an intense longing of mind to be entirely delivered from the dominion of evil. Again, this request, to be acceptable, must also imply, I suppose, that the individual offering it, is not at the time conscious of living in sin — conscious of indulging in any known sin.
“The Psalmist would not have made such a request as this, if he had been at the time indulging in sin: he would surely not have asked God to search him to see if there was any wickedness in him, if he was at the same time conscious of indulging in known sin. Had this been the case he could not have made such a request as this without (displaying) downright hypocrisy.
‘’But again, the acceptable offering of such a petition as this implies the assumption, on the part of the petitioner, that he needs to be deeply tried — penetrated with the light of truth to the deepest recesses of his soul.
‘’When an individual offers such a petition, he assumes that there may be such things about him as he has himself overlooked, and he asks for the scrutiny of God’s eye to search it out.’’