Thabo Matlaba
Matlaba has been one of the key stars for high-flying Swallows FC this season and proves that age is just a number.
Thabo Matlaba is one of the most recognised figures in South African football over the past decade who’s built a reputation as a hardworking wing-back. Having kicked off his professional career at Free State Stars, it took him just 18 months before Orlando Pirates signed him and he went on to win the league title in his first season. KICK OFF’s Lorenz Köhler spoke to the 33-year-old to find out what went wrong after joining the ‘Double-Treble’ winners, his sudden exit in 2018 and his plans for the future as he writes a new chapter in his colourful career at their Soweto rivals Swallows FC.
KICK OFF: How did you break into the PSL ranks at Free State Stars?
Thabo Matlaba: I went there for trials for two months and after that they said they will call me, but they never did. I then went to Witbank Spurs. I remember I was supposed to sign with them, it was a Sunday … I was going to sign on Monday and Free State finally called me. I had to lie to Witbank Spurs that I had a funeral or something so I could go back to Free State. It was an opportunity to play in the PSL and not National First Division, and they were very interested, they said ‘come, you are going to sign’.
Did Witbank Spurs say anything after seeing you were signed by Free State Stars?
They did obviously, [Chairman Temba] Mafu called me, and he was very angry saying “You came here, I was going to give you an opportunity to sign, now you run away and don’t tell me anything! You lied to me!” I just told him I’m sorry, I received another opportunity and I wanted to play in the PSL.
Surely there’s an interesting story about how you became so dominant with your weaker left foot then?
Jerry Sikhosana [at Mahlangu Tigers] coached me for a while, I only played leftback because there was nobody to play there. At training he used to say to me, I must play with my left only and if I touched the ball with my right foot, it will be called a foul so I must give the other guys the ball. So, it developed strong that time, it made me stronger because I was training with my left only, each and every training session.
Your first season in the PSL, talk us through that time and how did the interest from Orlando Pirates arise?
To be honest I really enjoyed my time in Free State, the team that we had there it was the best team, hey. Mpho Makola, Manti Moholo (now Mekoa], Paulus Masehe – it was the best team. We were beating big teams [under coach Steve Komphela]. But in my first game I was so nervous! You know in the PSL when you playing left-back you are close to the bench and the players are shouting ‘hey, you’re a cow, wena! You don’t know anything, you’re a cow!’ They intimidate you, you’re not used to that because you come from kasi football and Vodacom [ABC Motsepe League]. They take you out of the game. But as the season progressed, I grew in confidence and eventually when we had the December break I went home and I received a call from the late Mike Mokoena, who said to me: ‘ Thibos, I’ve sold you to Orlando Pirates, don’t come back here to Free State and don’t tell anyone’. It was a season and a half into my time in the PSL and Mike told me I need to go speak to the chairman of Pirates the next day. All I was thinking was: ‘How? This guy didn’t say anything to me before ...’ I knew nothing about it. And now I had to go face Irvin Khoza? I was so scared! I had to drive from Witbank to Limpopo and then meet the chairman and that’s how I ended up at Pirates – I remember I was driving my 1.6 Polo. It was good talking to Khoza, you know how the chairman is. He told me, ‘you know you earning R5, we’ll add another R10’. For me, I thought, ‘hey, this money is enough
“I DIDN’T CARE ABOUT THE MONEY BECAUSE I WAS GOING TO PLAY FOR PIRATES.”
because I wasn’t long in the PSL and he was like, he’ll add R30 signing on fee’. But it’s OK, it was a big team and I was happy to be there! I didn’t care about the money because I was going to play for Pirates. Not everyone can play for Pirates and it gave me a good opportunity to play for Bafana Bafana, which at the time I was so happy about.
How did it feel to walk into the dressing room of the ‘Double-Treble’ winners?
To be honest, I knew I was going to play at Pirates because I had the confidence and I work hard. I knew Ruben Cloete was playing with his left only and I could offer an option with either foot – that also meant I had an opportunity to play at right-back too. I had the confidence that when I was given the opportunity [to play] I would grab it with both hands. I made my debut under Julio Leal and they fired him. Augusto Palacios came in but I played every game until the final day when I won the league. I was struggling to understand
him, to be honest, but as time went on I could hear him properly! Tebza [ Teboho Moloi] was there so he also helped with the instructions.
You spent seven years with Pirates, and you only won the league in your first season. Why did the team struggle to challenge for silverware after that?
Benni McCarthy left us with huge confidence as a team, he was a winner and he left us to take over. Lucky [Lekgwathi] took over in some way and we still went to finals, between 2010 and 2015 we played in plenty of finals, we won the Nedbank Cup in 2014. But we lost in many finals, it was unfortunate because we did everything we could. In the Telkom, Nedbank Cup and Confederation Cup we just couldn’t score the goals that win us the game. It was a problem as in every final the opposition would score first and we were forced into chasing the game and that’s dangerous, you need to throw everything forward and change your system. That was the big problem, I feel we played extremely well, and we just never won the finals until 2016. We lost Senzo [Meyiwa] in 2014 and that’s when things started to go wrong.
How did Senzo’s death affect the dressing room? How long did it take for the squad to get back into high spirits?
The passing of Senzo affected us a lot because after that we never even challenged for anything, we were beaten left, right and centre. When the opposition scored and we knew we had to chase, our heads just dropped. Just look back at the [2016 Nedbank Cup] Final against SuperSport United, we scored first but just because of that mental block when they equalised, we lost 3-2. This was in a Cup final, imagine! We had a huge problem at the time. He was a leader, that’s why I called him ‘Skhulu’ because he would tell us: ‘hey guys, I don’t have money, let’s win this cup so we can have money’ – so we all knew he was going to do his best so we can win and enjoy that money, he was a true leader that wanted to win all games. Sometimes things will affect you, but you wouldn’t notice because he helped you mentally – they even brought in a psychologist to speak to us after his death, but it didn’t help.
Your rise to the national team was quite sudden too. What was it like to play under Pitso Mosimane?
I was very happy to play for Bafana Bafana because it was an opportunity to work under Pitso. I still remember his words from the first camp until now. He looked at me and he said, ‘you’re a quality player, you can play left and right, if I had a team in the PSL, you will be my first player to sign! You’re a good player! First season in PSL from bundus and you play like this?’. So yes, he gave me massive confidence. Even now I still speak about Pitso, we knew what we had with him. I remember [Ntsikelelo] Nyauza was complaining when coach Shakes [Mashaba] was sacked because he knew he was not going to be in the national team. [ Thamsanqa] Gabuza knew even if he wasn’t playing, Shakes would call him! They had that belief, so when someone like that leaves the national team, it affects you a lot. I was playing under coach Pitso, so I knew when he left it would be a problem because other coaches don’t see football the same [way].
Why exactly did you end up leaving Pirates, you were such an influential player for so long. What changed?
In football players come and go and I understood that. That’s what happened at Pirates, I saw players like Thulasizwe Mbuyane, Oupa Manyisa and Mark Mayambela leave, those were really talented players. Dr Irvin Khoza, the chairman didn’t want me to leave, he wanted to give me another two years but because of salary cuts he told me I must go sit
“WE LOST SENZO [MEYIWA] IN 2014 AND THAT’S WHEN THINGS STARTED TO GO WRONG.”
down and discuss a reduced salary. I just thought to mys elf, I can’t do that because I’m not eve en playing and now, they want me to cut my salary too. I’m not going to o stay here because it’s Pirates, I’m not a youngster anymore, I’m getting older. If I was younger, I would have stayed because b it was Pirates. I told the cha airman to let me go, I spoke to him th hree times and he didn’t want me to le eave, and it came to the decision even ntually that I would be released, and a he said I can go wherever I w want to.
So Black Leopard ds matched your sala ary demands...
At the time, Pirate es released a statemen nt that Thabo Matlaba will be leaving the club, bla ah blah blah. I went to News s Cafe immediately to meet an agent because he had contact with some teams in thhe PSL, but I didn’t want to play for them. AAnd as we were sitting there [David] Thidiela c ame, he greeted me and said, ‘I saw Pirates reeleased you, I want you on my team’. So I t hought maybe but the guy said to Thidiela: ‘he’s too expensive!’. But he really wanted me, so that’s how it happened. I sat down with him later, he told me they don’t have a lot of money, but they could give me what I earned at Pirates and I told him if they can ddo that, I will have no problem. As long as I’m pplaying football, I’m OK with that – I didn’t bbother entertaining other offers after that c onversation, I had no hesitation because oothers still wanted to negotiate.
You spent one season there but signed a tw wo- year and worked under Cavin Johnson a nd Luc Eymael? What were they like?
Eymael? He was the best coach. He’s the best, even now I wouldn’t mind being coached by him again, he knows his stuff! He used to play motivational videos for us. When he came to Black Leopards, I felt like now it is the time for us to do well. It was a coach who understood South African players, it was a coach that knew how to train players properly, I knew we would go somewhere under him. I’m not saying other coaches in the PSL couldn’t but I’m speaking specifically about Black
Leopards. We enjoyed his sessions, his tactics were the best, his passing drills was the best – he doesn’t come with one drill, he changed it up and everyone enjoyed life under him.
What do you think about what happen to him at Yanga [in Tanzania], the whole alleged racist rant?
I’m not going to comment on that, but we are still on good terms, we still talk, even at the time Chippa United announced him as a coach. I sent him a congratulations message; we speak a lot about football but I’m not going to go into that politics because it’s not for me.
What’s changed at Swallows FC after the blistering start to the season that saw you tipped for a title challenge?
We didn’t change anything; the problem is you have to score goals to win games. If you don’t score and keep conceding it’s a
“EYMAEL? HE WAS THE BESTCOACH. HE’S THE BEST.”
problem. But for us, it’s the first season in the PSL after so long. We are happy with the results because look at how many teams have been in the league for so long are n not close to us. Where are they? They are dow wn there where we should be as debutants in the league. We’re proud of ourselves, eve en if we got a top-half finish, but top three o or qualifying for the Champions League wo ould be amazing.
Lastly, what are your ambitions now w at the age of 33 – what do you still want to achieve for your career?
I still want to play for the national team m, everybody wants to represent their coun ntry and I’d love to see Swallows FC qualify for the Champions League. We have that t opportunity to finish in the top three. I ca an see that happening and I think Swallows s is my big team now, there’s quality playe rs here, we can compete with any team, ou ur performances this season hasn’t been a fl fluke. With this mentality within the club, I see Swallows going far. This wasn’t a team pu ut together because they didn’t have jobs, w we’re here because we want to play for Swallow ws, we are here to make sure Swallows ar re placed where they deserve to be, which is high in the league tabl le. We always encourage the young gsters that they need to work ha ard if they want to play for r bigger teams. Th e experienced p layers in the team have h the duty to o work hard der than them m to inspire.