Lighten up – what’s so wrong with showboating if you score?
AS A young girl growing up in a town that was famous because of its then prominent football team, Mthatha Bucks FC, Diski was a daily thing.
After school, I’d head to Bucks ground to watch them train and on weekends I’d never miss their games.
What attracted me to this club was that it was the only big team in the Eastern Cape at the time; maybe I felt a need to be loyal to them.
But honestly, I found their art of showboating magnetic. Suddenly I had access to a world of football outside my school.
Of course, as a professional team, they possessed finer techniques of passing, shooting and dribbling through their players, but there was one aspect that stayed with me more than anything else – the boasting that my role models always brought to the field.
In all the years I have been exposed to football, I know dribbling as a massive part of how football is played.
Why did South Africa’s most successful coach, Pitso Mosimane, criticise
Orlando Pirates midfielder Fortune Makaringe for showboating during their 1-0 loss to the Soweto giants?
I would say, in football we are starting to see barriers of class manifesting over showboating polemics. It’s all about class.
The wealthiest and most powerful people in football, the posh coaches, refuse to be associated with anything that looks like township football.
That dust cannot match their level in life now.
Dribbling, being associated with unprofessional football, anyone who masters it doesn’t have a bright or sustainable future in football, just like “township people” don’t have. These are all thoughts that class can mould in a person.
Remember the former Baroka FC midfielder, Tshepo “Skhwama” Matete?
His skills were said to be for township tournaments and not to build a robust professional football career.
It is ludicrous to see that rules towards flair and imagination still exist in the game.
In 2017, Kaizer Chiefs went viral for a stylish sequence of play at the end of their match against Platinum Stars.
Passing the ball around confidently, the Chiefs’ players threw in a series of nice touches, extravagant dribbles and a few odd yet entertaining feints.
For many fans like myself, it reminded us of what we first enjoyed about the sport and elicited our interest in a local style on the periphery of the game.
To me, it looked like players enjoyed their time on the field and were backed by a group of fans that appreciated their performance.
That wasn’t a mockery of the opposition; it was effective, entertaining football.
Coming back to the recent case of Makaringe, he brought the Orlando Stadium crowd to its feet when he knelt on top of the ball in true Mzansi style, but coach Mosimane was not impressed, even mocking the move when the ball went out of play and gesturing to the fans.
Were critics angry with the Pirates Midfielder because dribbling is disrespectful to the opponent? Who are we to dictate?
Every player has access to learning and perfecting the tricks used to beat defenders.
If the move works, why do we feel the need to draw some imaginary line protecting an opponent who has the exact same opportunity to master these same skills?
Instead of trying to legislate these ridiculous unwritten rules about skill, it’s time to rid the game of them. The only real disrespect shown is to the athlete who worked to develop and savour their ability, only to have it labelled frivolous, extravagant or arrogant.
Football is supposed to be fun. Do we seriously believe it’s in our best interests as fans to hide behind dull rhetoric and take offence at those who enjoy the game to the fullest?
Can we not enjoy the rare moments of skill, or are we simply content to let our anger towards showboating operate as a subtle proxy of how we actually feel – inadequate, in that maybe we weren’t the ones talented enough to make it to the top?
Black people should stop being fascinated by the idea of sounding smart at the expense of others.
Myataza is a political science graduate from UWC, and founder of Village Girl Creatives.