Ovidy Karuru

The Zimbabwe international reveals the pain of leaving Stellenbosch FC, but has hope for the future at Black Leopards.

BlackBlack Leopards forward Ovidy Karuru has endured plenty of hardships since leaving Europe to join Kaizer Chiefs in 2014, but finally seems to be establishing himself in the PSL. The 32-year-old is playing for his fourth club in South Africa and talks to KICK OFF’s ChadKelly Klate about his experience thus far, as well as his hopes of emulating Bafana Bafana legend Siyabonga Nomvethe.

KICK OFF: How have you found things since joining Black Leopards this season? Ovidy Karuru:

Things have been great, my brother. You know how it is in football – when a player is happy, you perform better. When a player is getting the treatment he likes, he will perform better.

It’s a new city for you, with a different environment to what you’re used to, so how have you settled?

I’ve been moving around, so I’m used to that. I can’t complain. I like new challenges, I like going to the jungle to hunt, you understand. Wherever God takes me, I will go because he has a better plan for me. Of course, I’ve been used to staying in big cities, but it is what it is, I’ve just got to focus and work hard and try to move on.

It was a surprise to see you leave Stellenbosch so soon after joining and establishing yourself in the team?

You know, for me, it’s always good to ... the only team that I signed a straight three-year deal with was Kaizer Chiefs, when I came here. But AmaZulu, the first time I went there, I signed six months with an option [to extend].

Of course, I was enjoying the moment and then they wanted to extend, so we did that, and I ended up staying almost three years. When I went to Stellenbosch, they were also number-15 [on the log] and fighting relegation, so I didn’t want to risk. Sometimes you risk but sometimes you don’t have to, and I ended up signing for six months and we said we’ll negotiate at the end of the season – there was no option.

Go on ...

Unfortunately, I don’t know, we couldn’t sit down and discuss a new contract, so it was not my decision to leave. Maybe the club had better options or plans, I don’t know. But there was no bad blood between myself and Stellenbosch, I still talk to some of the staff members and the players. Maybe now with COVID-19, you know financially clubs might be struggling. Actually, when I went there, I took a risk by taking a pay cut because I wanted to play football, and we agreed to renegotiate when the team is safe. So, maybe because I took a pay cut, when I was going to negotiate, they thought I was going to say, ‘Hey, remember last year I took a pay cut...’ maybe that’s something that contributed.

Was joining Leopards also a short-term deal?

Ja, it’s until the end of the season and then we’ll see what happens. The chairman has been in contact with the management and they want to sit down and discuss a deal, so we don’t know. You know, when it comes to negotiating, both parties need to be happy with the deal. So, if me and my management are happy then we will see what we can do. But if we are not happy, because of where I am in my career now, I need to look for the best [possible deal].

Was Leopards the best option or were they the only ones interested?

No, you know in football, you have to go – if there’s a deal on the table, take that deal. Don’t wait for people promising because those promises might not end up materialising. [David] Thidiela called me and said, ‘Ovidy, I want you to come and join the team’ – then I was like, ‘OK, no problem’.

“SOMETIMES AGENTS DON’T TELL YOU THE TRUTH.”

Because there was a time when I was called up to the [Zimbabwe] national team without a club, and a lot of people were questioning, ‘How did Ovidy get a call-up even though he’s not playing and doesn’t have a club?’ I had to look for a club to play and showcase my talent, and people would be sure that I deserve to be in the national team as well, so that’s how I ended up joining Leopards.

You seem to be enjoying yourself with some impressive performances, what has contributed to that?

I think because most of the time I don’t fight my own battles, I let God fight my battles. So, I just do my best and let God handle the rest, because at the end of the day we just have to be prayerful and if you believe in your prayers, God will answer your prayers. I work hard on the field and I let God handle the rest.

But is there anything you’re perhaps doing differently now – for instance, a

higher work rate or is it the quality of your teammates?

Not really. I’m just doing the same but it’s just that I’m playing a different role at Black Leopards. I think if you see most of the time, I’ve been playing as a striker, and if you play as a striker then you have to score or create goals for the team. I’m playing as a striker and that has helped me score goals and gain confidence.

We know you as a winger, from when you arrived at Kaizer Chiefs, is this new role your preferred position?

No, when I started playing soccer for the Under-17 national team, I was playing as a striker – even with the Under-20 national team I was playing as a striker. Being a striker is nothing new to me. Even in France I once played as a striker, when I joined US Boulogne the coach just said, ‘ Today, Ovidy you’re playing as a striker’, then in that game I scored, and we won. I don’t know if you have watched a lot of my games, I play all positions from midfield going forward – I can play right, left, behind the striker, box-to-box and I can play striker. When we were playing against Algeria with Zimbabwe, I was playing as a box-to-box midfielder, so from midfield going forward, I understand all the positions because I’ve played in those positions ever since I started playing soccer.

How did your break to move to Europe come about over a decade ago?

I was playing for Gunners FC, but they actually saw me play ... I know some people don’t take CHAN seriously, but it is a very good opportunity for local players to go and showcase their talent to get international clubs. They saw me playing at the CHAN for Zimbabwe and they wanted me to go to France. I think it was the first CHAN tournament in 2009.

And what was it like getting that European experience?

It was a very, very good experience. I don’t regret going there, I enjoyed my time but unfortunately, I had to come back [to South Africa]. Sometimes, in Europe, when you’re coming from Zimbabwe at a young age, you don’t know how expensive things are. Maybe you’re coming from earning, let’s say, R20,000 and then they will tell you, ‘ We’ll give you R50,000’, and you’ll be happy but as time goes on, you’ll see that, ‘No, there’s nothing I can do here’, because you can’t even save the money. Just to go and eat a meal, a proper lunch, without a starter or desert, it will cost you maybe €50, which is like R700 or R800. Imagine you have to have a starter and end with desert, it will cost you maybe €100, and you know cooking every day is not for us soccer players. Most of the time we like eating at a restaurant because we’re tired, so you’ll end up realising that all your money is going to food only.

That must have been quite unpleasant.

But if you go there and start earning a big contract then it’s understandable. In Zimbabwe I was maybe earning R5,000, so when I went there, they said,

‘ We’ll give you $2,000 [R30,000

“I HADN’T PLAYED IN SOUTH AFRICA SO PEOPLE WOULD RATHER WANT TO SEE SHABBA IN THE TEAM.”

per month], and I was happy. It was difficult and you could see some of the guys I was playing with [in Zimbabwe] who came to South Africa, they were doing better than me in Europe, in terms of investments and all these things. That’s where it comes to like, ‘Maybe I should go back to Africa because things are cheap there and I can [live better].’ That’s how I came back here.

And it was no different in Belgium then?

But when I went to Belgium, it also played a role for me to come back. The person who took me to Belgium – you know sometimes agents don’t tell you the truth. I didn’t understand the language of the contracts, because there was one Zimbabwean who was friends with that [local] agent and they didn’t tell me the truth of how much I was going to earn. They just said, ‘You’re going to get the

same salary [as in France], with better bonuses’. So, when I went to OH Leuven, at the end of the month I saw my salary was even half of what I was getting in France. When I tried to ask them, they tried to explain, but they already got their commission, so they were happy. That’s the reason I came back.

So, how did the Chiefs move then come about?

Before I even went to France, I was supposed to join Chiefs, but I preferred Europe. The same time Jimmy

Jambo joined, because we were playing in the same team, was the same time I was supposed to come and join Chiefs also, but I ended up choosing France instead.

“SOME THINGS JUST HAPPEN AT CLUBS. SOME THINGS THAT ARE BETTER NOT TO TALK ABOUT.”

And fate had it that you would one day move to Naturena anyway...

Ja, I was happy and looking forward to playing, everything was looking good. I don’t even regret my first season at Chiefs because the team was performing very well – remember we won the league that time under Stuart Baxter, and normally you can’t tamper with winning teams. So, Baxter used to tell you if you are doing well or not, and you have to work on this or that, but sometimes it’s also difficult if you don’t play for a long time. The people who were playing were not ... like that time the ‘MA-LE-MA’ combination were playing very well, and if you see them putting people like Shabba [Siphiwe Tshabalala] and Bernard Parker on the bench, it was difficult. By that time, I hadn’t played in South Africa so people would rather want to see Shabba in the team, and you can’t be saying, ‘No, Shabba mustn’t be in the team, Ovidy must be in the team’. So, it affected me because the guys were doing good and others were trusted ahead of me, Shabba and Parker were people you couldn’t put in the stands.

The next season coach Steve Komphela joined but still people weren’t seeing you in action much …

Ja, he wasn’t giving me a chance, but I didn’t want to be sitting on the bench all the time. Komphela liked me but some things just happen at clubs. Some things that are better not to talk about. But it was time for me to go, so I had to go.

Is there anything you have regrets about?

It’s something I don’t regret, but there are certain things that you’ll hear you did this, and you don’t even know. They will tell you, ‘You did this’, but you never did something like that. So, I was like, ‘Ok, no problem’. It’s part of football.

Was there anything you took out of the experience at Chiefs?

I can’t really say. After two years without playing, I ended up sitting at home for six months. That hits you as a player to say, ‘You know, you’re not guaranteed to have a team all the time’. Because, especially me, since I didn’t play a lot, nobody in South Africa knew how I play. I promise, if I got the chance to play when I was still fresh from Europe, people would have seen how good or how bad I was. Now, when I came, as a foreigner you need to apply for a [work] permit, which can sometimes take long to come, so that was the case and guys were performing while I was just training. Once you’re not playing competitive soccer, just training for two or three months, it’s difficult, even if you get two minutes to play – the confidence will be down because y you’re not used to competitive football, and you y don’t know how people will take you. And because you are new and everyone wants to t see you, there’s also pressure. When you’re playing for a team like Chiefs, there’s already pressure because it’s a team that needs players t to perform all the time, so it’s always going t to be difficult when you get a chance to play. For two years, the only games I was playing were w Macufe Cup or Nedbank Cup, which w was played by players that were not playing regularly, and you know how selfish such players can be – you want to play to prove y yourself so that you get a chance to play with t the regular team.

So, what were those six months in limbo like – did you at any point consider quitting?

I was training in Soweto with my friends – if I take you to that pitch, you won’t believe I was training there. In the situation, you go there to the kasi and play where there’s not even grass, the field is bumpy and you are even scared of twisting your ankles when playing there, but it is what it is – you have to work hard and train. Later I actually went to Turkey, but you know once you don’t play for so long, clubs will think maybe you got a serious injury that you are trying to hide, and your sharpness is not there because you haven’t been playing, so they don’t want to take chances on you. So, it didn’t go well in Turkey and then coach Norman Mapeza wanted me to come back and join his team [FC Platinum] in Zimbabwe, but luckily Joey Antipas was at AmaZulu and he called me to invite me, and I joined the team in 2017.

Coming back to the present, what are you hoping to still achieve at the age of 32?

I’m that kind of person who doesn’t plan, because people plan but God decides. I just tell myself that I need to continue doing my best and pushing myself, then I will see where God will take me. At the end of the day, people can play until 37 or 38, it all depends on how you train and take care of yourself. I just need to take care of myself and train harder and try to keep playing. You see Bhele [Nomvethe] played until 40-41, so if I can get to that age then it’s better, I’ll keep going. The advantage us players have that play in forward positions, when you lose your speed, you come back to midfield and then to defence, etc. Maybe I will one day end up playing as a defender, we never know.