Morris is still hungry for success
WITH almost a third of the season already gone and just 11 points accrued from a possible 27, few would give Milano United any hope of qualifying for the NFD playoffs. The Grassy Park-based club find themselves in 12th position and, though they are definitely capable of finishing in the top half of the table, the top three already looks out of reach. However, that’s the exact goal that former Bafana Bafana defender Nasief Morris has in mind every time he pulls on a Milano shirt.
Morris has represented eight different clubs in four countries on two continents during his professional career, meaning Milano’s current situation is nothing new to him. “In my first year in the NFD with Santos, we were in the bottom half of the table in January and we ended up picking points and finishing second on the log and missing out on winning the league by only goal difference,” Morris said.
“It doesn’t matter where we are now. Once we find our feet, we can still end up fighting for a chance to get into the PSL. I’m not going to say that we can win the league, but our objective is to earn promotion to the PSL.”
Morris is currently in his third season at Eezy My Kinnes and helping the club earn promotion has been his aim since he signed for them in 2014. At 35 years old he may be running out of time to achieve his objective but if he falls short it will certainly not blight his career.
The former Beacon Valley resident entered the professional ranks as a 16-year-old at Santos, fresh out of the club’s development structures, and went on to forge one of the most successful careers of any Cape Town player in the modern era.
After almost a decade at Aris and Panathinaikos in Greece, he spent two seasons on loan in La Liga with Recreativo and Racing Santander before closing the European chapter of his career at Apollon Limassol in Cyprus. He would spend a season at SuperSport United before moving back to where it all began, at Santos.
By then Morris had already won 37 caps for Bafana and made a similar number of appearances in the world’s top club competitions, the Uefa Champions League and Uefa Cup.
Morris says the hunger for success that saw him reach those heights is undiminished and that he has other motivations as well these days.
“This is all I have ever done in my life. It’s something in my blood and I think it’s just natural for me. I also still want to achieve things in my career even though I have achieved a lot,” he says.
“It’s never finished and now my next objective is obviously to try to help the team get into the PSL. If I do that it’s another plus for me in my career and I’m my life.
“With my experience, I try to help the younger players in the team and also try to give back. I think, looking at the response from a lot of the players at Santos and Milano, they (are) very responsive to the advice I give them. They look up to me and have a lot of respect. I’m glad that I could make a difference in their playing careers and in their lives as well because I try to hand over all the experience I have.”
Morris has played in all nine of Milano’s games this season and hopes to equal the number of appearances he made last season (29). The centre-back says he plans to hold off on retirement for as long as possible.
“I used to think that I would stop play at my current age, around 35 or 36, but it also depends on the way you feel. The way I feel now is that I am going to try and go on as long as I can,” Morris said.
“If I look at last season I only missed (one) game and that was because of suspension I picked up from four yellows. I played 29 games so that says something; that I can still cope and play. I’m looking to see what I can do this season and if I can do the same thing, then I’m not going to think about stopping and I’ll go on for as long as I can.”