MBESUMA
REVERSE AGE-CHEAT COMES CLEAN!
KICKOFF: Collins, to what do you attribute your form this season, which includes winnning the PSL Player of the Month for September/October? COLLINS MBESUMA: I have been moving around a lot since I came back from Europe [in 2008], and haven’t really settled well at any of the clubs. But right now I feel like I am at home, and that’s why I am back playing my game again. Plus the coach [Muhsin Ertugral] really understands me. I am happy here. The goals have also been coming – you had seven in the opening 12 League matches, and you were the League’s top scorer going into the new year … What matters most is the team, because if I score goals and the team is still in the bottom half then those goals don’t carry much significance. But I am happy that my goals have won us matches, and we are in the top three on the League table. Do you feel you have adjusted well enough at Aces to perhaps challenge for the top-scorer award? I just need to make sure that I keep going and remain focused – if I do this then the sky is the limit. But although my primary role is to try and score in every match, it is not all about me. I will be happier to see my team finish on top than for me to win the top-scorer award. I will still be happy knowing that I contributed towards the success of the team. You must feel very good to see your name up there again – it has been a while since that was the case … In life you don’t always get what you want, but that doesn’t mean you must lose hope. You must keep believing and never give up. If you believe in yourself then noone can stop you. It might take you longer to achieve what you want – it could be years – but you shouldn’t give up. Life can be rough, just like it has been for me with all the ups and downs, but I have never given up – so yes, I am happy now to see my name up there as a striker. Has the responsibility of the captain’s armband provided some kind of inspiration too? Definitely! You have to lead by example and work extra hard so that the young ones look up to you. It is an honour to be the skipper and I have to lead from the front. Plus, I have this feeling in me that I must never disappoint. Whatever I do now, I have to be the guy who encourages, pushes and motivates others. The armband is really pushing me.
Aces are in a good position in the League – what is the ultimate target this season? We cannot be getting excited about anything. We have worked hard to get here and now the challenge is to make sure that we retain this place or improve on it. The belief is there in this squad that we can make things happen. The team is coming together and we understand each other very well, so we will keep pushing. However, our aim from the start of the season was to finish in the top five. Do you feel you can challenge for the title? Why not? I believe in God and with God nothing is impossible. Why can’t we win the League? We can win it. It is just about us believing that we can make it happen. The coach has told us that we have to believe – it is now up to us embrace his encouragement. Even the younger players’ hunger is improving, because they feel they are part of a family with a good father. You mention this ‘family’ spirit in the team – how crucial is that? There is not much difference between what is happening right here at Aces and to what happened with us [Zambia] when we won the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations. We are like family, a solid unit that will stand, defend and protect each other. Once you have that unity you can conquer anything – who would ever have thought Zambia would win the Afcon against big names like Ghana and Ivory Coast? As a team we have to work for each other. If that spirit is here at Aces, why shouldn’t the same happen? Did starting pre-season so early – in June last year – play a role in your current success? When the coach came he wanted to see the players and assess the squad based on who is staying and who is leaving. So this meant we got to know each other very early, and combinations and understanding each other well were already in motion before the start of the season. Tell us more about Ertugral’s influence … He is a high-profile coach who knows what he is doing. He has made a huge difference to this team, highlighted by his drive to get us to believe in ourselves even when no-one else shows belief. And it seems that for you he has made a difference too … Some coaches chose to never give me a chance. They gave up on me by just looking at me, judged me only from my physical appearance. They were the ones who concluded that I could not run and said I was overweight, yet this is my body and its shape will never change. They failed to understand me; they didn’t take notice that I was able to do what all the other players were doing at training. If I was really overweight I wouldn’t be able to do what other players were doing at training. However, here we have a top fitness trainer [Elsa Storm] who will know if I am not fit and push me to work harder. The truth is that I am never going to change my football. I cannot play with another striker and you have to know and appreciate me for my qualities. Just because another striker runs all over the field doesn’t mean I must also do the same. I cannot run all over the field when I know that this is not where my strength is, and he [Ertugral] knows that. There have been suggestions that your good form is due to the fact that you are in the last year of your contract at Aces, and are pushing for a new deal ... Let us not talk about my contract in public because that is for me and my manager. What should be known is that I am happy at Aces for now. You always look unhappy whenever you are substituted ... If you are happy with being substituted then you are not okay. If I am doing something wrong on the pitch then I have to work harder. I can support the team, but it is never a good feeling to be pulled out of a match. You now have over 90 career goals in the PSL – are you aware that you are closing in on becoming only the fourth player to reach 100 club goals since the start of the PSL in 1996? It is a huge motivation to hear that. I wasn’t aware to be honest … I will have to do more, because I also want to join this exclusive group of strikers. Do you think anyone will break your record of 35 goals in one season?
“I am never going to change my football.”
Only God knows. I cannot really say. I can only speak for myself and as long as I am still playing I feel I can still break that record. You arrived in South Africa as a freshfaced teenager, and here you are now with 10 seasons of experience in the country, married with kids and due to turn 32 in February. How are you planning for the future? What I do in the future is my personal life and I cannot talk about that. Understood … Actually I need to tell you a story about my real age. I am actually turning 31 in February instead of 32, as I had to add one more year to my age so that I could acquire an identity document while I was at Roan United [in Zambia], aged 15. Though the coaches wanted to use me in the first team at 15, I couldn’t get the identity document which would enable me to be registered with the Zambian Premier League because I was under-age. I went to the ID offices and I was told that to get that ID I had to be 16. So my mother and father decided to add one more year on my age so that I could immediately fulfill my dream. There was no other way because I wanted to play and the coaches wanted to use me. So when I started playing in the Zambian Premier League for Roan United I was actually 15 instead of the 16 that appeared on my documents. Tell us more about the start to your career. At that time I was playing number 3 [left-back], then moved to midfield and I only became a striker when I was called into the national Under-23 team for the 2003 All-Africa Games third-place play-off against Ghana, in Nigeria. I had played left-back for the whole of that tournament, but was pushed forward after Chris Katongo and Songwe Chalwe both went down with malaria. I played number 9 that day and scored. From then onwards I was played up-front, and I scored in both legs against South Africa’s Under-23s immediately after those All-Africa Games. I was then spotted by Kaizer Chiefs. As a youngster you were nicknamed ‘Barefoot’ because you didn’t have boots. You overcame those challenges to become a recognised international who even went as far as the English Premier League. Tell us about that … Life is a challenge, and at that time my father wanted me to go to school instead of playing football. He didn’t believe that I would make a career out of football, even when I was pushing myself to the limit. There was such confusion that I used to dodge him just so that I got to play, even though he didn’t want to buy me boots. I never had the best of everything as a kid, and considering how many talented footballers there were while I was growing up, I am grateful to God for having led me to being someone who has gone this far instead of vanishing like others. Do you know that I once gave up on football while I was back home? I thought it was a waste of time and there were many people discouraging me. And as I didn’t even have boots, when I went to training those kids who did have boots would laugh at me – you can imagine how disheartening that was. But there was one coach named Paul Mulenga – a former Roan United coach – who encouraged me to come back into the game and here I am now. KO
“Why can’t we win the League? We can win it!”