Secret Footballer

Strange tales involving the women of the night …

“THE TEAM MANAGER TOOK HIS OWN MONEY OUT TO PAY THE PROSTITUTE”

It happened a decade ago. The Secret Footballer was with the SA Under-20 national team in Ethiopia and the players fell into the hands of prostitutes. It happened again while he was with Orlando Pirates playing in the Caf Champions League, where one of the players sneaked in a lady of the night and ran into a world of trouble when he didn’t have the money to pay her after the transaction. Ziyawa!

As usual, before we play a

match we would go to camp first. In those camps, obviously, certain players would sneak girls into their rooms, especially when we played away. It was normal for us. But it got worse when they would bring in prostitutes and that caused a big problem because you don’t know that person. It used to happen often and we ended up having a security guard going with the team and to keep a close watch on those players who were known to bring in girls during camps. But then again, certain players were naughty to such an extent where they would try to convince the security guards to come with them while they are going to get some food. And while the security guard was away with the players to get food, others who remained behind would sneak prostitutes into the rooms. Distracted by the food mission, the security guards would be blind to the plot being hatched back at the hotel. In one incident with the Under-20 national team, we were in Kenya for about two to three weeks for a training camp when an incident happened involving a strange woman. But it became worse when we went to Ethiopia. When we arrived, there were a whole lot of prostitutes next to where we were staying, so everyone was excited about that.

Just imagine a 20-year-old

“buying” a prostitute … that’s very bad because at the end of the day you are relying on a condom for protection, as you don’t even know what diseases that person has and so on. And anything can happen during intercourse: just imagine, you are there to play football then you get sick when you are in Ethiopia, that’s how much footballers don’t take care of themselves. So, almost everyone bought prostitutes in Ethiopia. Mind you, it was not just the players, even some delegation members were known to partake. At the hotels where we were staying, the prostitutes would stand outside, knowing that there were visitors and they knew that it was an opportunity for them to make money and the players would end up buying, as well as the delegates and dignitaries. It came to the point that even the Ethiopian security guards allowed the prostitutes to enter the hotels, accepting bribes. And it was not only happening with the Under-20s, even with some Premier Soccer League teams. I remember while I was still playing for Orlando Pirates and we went to play in the Champions League. A certain player did not have money on that trip but still managed to sneak a prostitute into the hotel.

So the prostitute slept over in

his room and he knew that he didn’t have money. What he then did was, in the morning he tried to dodge the girl and went to the bus we were using to travel to the stadium where we were supposed to play. Then as we are about to leave, the girl came straight to the bus and halted the driver. She came inside and said, there is a guy who owes me money here for a business transaction that happened last night and pointed out the guy. It was so embarrassing for him to have a lady of the night coming into the bus and saying you didn’t pay her for the services last night. You know when you do these kinds of things, they make sure that it stays away from the media and no one must know. In that situation, the manager had to be called in and they called that player to come and explain what happened. The team manager then took his own money out from his pocket and paid the lady. When we returned to the hotel that player had to go to a disciplinary committee hearing but even today, we don’t know what happened from there as it was kept under wraps. These guys can be naughty at times yerrr and I believe that these things still happen even now when players go into camp.