Daniel ‘Sailor’ Tshabalala

The former Orlando Pirates midfielder was exciting with the ball at his feet before injury ended his career prematurely.

Remembered for his showboating by an infuriated Tottenham Hotspur manager Glen Hoddle in 2003 as he announced his arrival at Orlando Pirates, Daniel ‘Sailor’ Tshabalala always had entertainment in him. Now, well over a decade since he last played in the professional ranks, the 43-year-old reveals to KICK OFF’s Lovemore Moyo how he was robbed of his insurance pay-out.

As a kid growing up in Sebokeng, Vaal it was always obvious that the passion that Daniel ‘Sailor’ Tshabalala had for football would see him in the professional ranks someday. Influenced by his father, his team of choice became Orlando Pirates.

Prior to his teenage years, he was already the owner of an amateur club which campaigned in the Chappies League against Steve Lekoelea’s Two for Joy.

“Football was part of me since I opened my eyes,” Tshabalala tells KICK OFF. “I am the guy who was laughed at by other kids at school when I said I want to be a professional footballer.

“I remember the year when our team Happy Tigers was supposed to play in the Chappies League final at FNB because we had won the local league, but then when we got to the stadium, we found Two for Joy already playing in our place because they were owned by an influential figure.

“We were robbed but that was the day I found the inspiration to play at that stadium,” he chuckles.

Into his early 20s, Owen da Gama scouted him playing for Vaal Ambassadors in the then Vodacom Second Division (now ABC Motsepe League) and recruited him to PSM Parkhurst, handing him his first pay-cheque of R500.

From Parkhurst he joined Larry Brookstone’s Highlands Park, which was followed by the merger with the Joseph Mapfulagatsha owned Mapate Silver Stars. The project gave birth to Silver Stars, before later becoming Platinum Stars.

In 2003, while they will still a First Division side, Stars ousted Orlando Pirates 2-0 in the Absa Cup before being stopped by Jomo Cosmos in the quarterfinals. It meant the dreadlocked player with silky skills suddenly became of interest to PSL clubs.

“Jomo Cosmos had long wanted me, but I couldn’t join them because the money wasn’t better than what I was already earning. Sundowns wanted me as well and I met them after we beat Pirates in that ABSA Cup game.

“They put in their offer and I was supposed to join them but that dream to play for Pirates kept on spinning in my head. On my way to Sundowns I received a call that someone was coming to pick me up, only to find out that I was being taken to meet the Pirates chairman [Dr Irvin Khoza].

When I arrived there, I didn’t hesitate because I had told myself that this is what I want and it was now happening,” he says.

Leaving Hoddle fuming

After playing in a pre-season friendly against the Tottenham Hotspur in Durban, the Spurs manager Glen Hoddle was fuming at the end of the game having witnessed the local flair which he interpreted as disrespect.

“I signed for Pirates just days before the game with Tottenham. I had not even trained with these guys, so I didn’t know how they behave. I just went there and played for the supporters because coming from a small team in Mvela, it was my first time to play in front of such a crowd.

“I didn’t care about what he (Hoddle) said. How could he come to my home and dictate to me? He was crazy. We won the game and that is how we know how to play. I didn’t know any better way to play.

“I became a hero in the Vaal. Luckily for me, playing for Pirates never changed me from what I was and what I wanted to be. I remained myself and still treated people the same. I wanted to inspire the boys.

“Who was going to motivate Thabo Rakhale if I didn’t come back to the hood? I still played in the hood just to enhance myself, even though I was careful with tackles,” adds Tshabalala, who had a team named Sailor FC in the ABC Motsepe League in those years.

For all the beautiful football that Pirates played through the three years that he was there under Roy Barreto, Augusto Palacios, Kosta Papic and then Teboho Moloi, he was without silverware during his stay. Pirates finished second twice in two of those three years.

“It is sad that we played the best football but then management was mostly to blame for us not winning any trophies. There were games we played and got us to be number one, but suddenly there would be changes and some players had to come in.

“At the end of the day, it wasn’t our decision, it was management that would put the team together, whether through the coaches or technical staff. However, I feel like they let us down,” he states.

‘This issue will open wounds’

At the height of his career, Tshabalala won three Bafana Bafana caps, all of which came at the disastrous 2006 AFCON finals in Egypt where the side lost all three games and did not even manage a goal. He hesitantly speaks out about that disaster.

“This issue will open wounds because it was painful. I was a newcomer in the national team, so I had no say but then found the series of meetings when we got there rather awkward.

“There was a meeting that I think was unnecessary after we had just beaten Egypt in a pre-tournament friendly and that was what led to us losing all three games in the tournament proper.

“In that meeting I was quiet, and people were arguing. I remember Benni McCarthy asking SAFA why they were giving him R30 000 for the tournament when he got that same amount in 1998.

“He wanted to know how players would take such an amount back home. He told

“HOW COULD HE COME TO MY HOME AND DICTATE TO ME? HE WAS CRAZY.”

them that he doesn’t want it so rather it be given to the other players. That is when I realised that SAFA was not handling this right.

“Even if you don’t have funds, there was another way of handling this than debating about it when we were already at the tournament. Suddenly people were worried about getting injured there,” he reveals.

After that tournament, Tshabalala came back to Pirates but at the end of the 2005/06 found himself leaving for FC AK in the First Division. How could he leave Pirates for a lower division club?

“Leaving Pirates wasn’t easy because I am a true Buccaneer and I knew the chairman wouldn’t allow it. But I just wanted to play football and not be part of politics. I didn’t start well with [Pirates administrator] Floyd Mbele because we spoke differently since we didn’t know each other, and I could see that things would be different.

“I had to wait for the season to end and wanted to go back to Highlands Park or Bloemfontein Celtic, but then [FC AK coach] Ian Palmer came and said here is an opportunity. And I saw it that way because I was going down to Mvela, meaning I will not be an opponent to Pirates.

“In the first three months at FC AK I felt like a king because there was better money than what I was getting at Pirates. Even the offers that I was getting from other PSL teams were less than what I was getting from FC AK.

“I turned professional at 26 so I asked

myself about whether this should be about making money in Mvela or chasing fame in the PSL, and I chose the ching-ching [money]. I knew I would come back to the PSL because the mission was to get FC AK promoted right away since we had the material and I had done it before.

“But when the money started not coming into my account, I took my clearance right away. Being at FC AK helped in a way because I now had a payslip that had to be either matched or bettered.

“Highlands Park [Platinum Stars] offered me less and I just decided to focus on football from there,” he says.

Being banned from football

Tshabalala’s time at Stars started off sweet but ultimately turned sour after SAFA’s disciplinary committee found him guilty of using a banned substance in the form of marijuana.

He pleaded guilty to contravening the organisation’s anti-doping regulations with his initial two-year ban overturned on appeal and reduced to a week’s community service, meaning he returned to action immediately.

SAFA was then lambasted for lack of consistency as they had forced Mbulelo Mabizela to serve his full sentence for a similar offence.

“That suspension didn’t last because the facts and truth were all there,” Tshabalala says. “Football has rules and you must teach people about the rules. If you say intsango [marijuana] is not allowed in football, I will ask if you ever came to me and told me about it.

“I have health issues that need me to take the herb. I have never taken it for fun or taken the spliff from a corner. I still take it for health reasons and that is why even today it is legal.

“The herb is not a drug because it just grows from the ground and doesn’t need to be fertilised with anything. When they confronted me, I only gave them the facts and proved to them that I am not a rough person.

“Whenever I took it, I didn’t put other players in danger. I was given community service, which I had been doing all along, so it was not a problem but I was never banned from football. I respect the game,” says Tshabalala.

Rather surprising was the fall-out that he had with Steve Komphela, which led to him being transfer-listed at the end of the 2009/10 season.

He was accused of allegedly faking injury at a time when he had undergone two operations on his ankle and eventually left the game due to on-going problems.

“If I was faking an injury would my career have been ended by the same injury?” he asks.

“I was highly disappointed. It was funny because it was me and Simba Marumo who recommended Steve to Platinum Stars as senior players ahead of [Ernst] Middendorp after the club couldn’t get Tommy [Madigage].

“We wanted one of our own and he was our choice as the senior players but then in turn he started telling me that he has my profile and I wondered what profile this was. Some people are like that and you understand their characters that way.

“I have no grudges with Steve because it was a mistake he made, and I just hope he is better now. Not everyone will be like me because others would retaliate. If you take food out of my mouth, I will get hungry, but it’s in the past now,” says Tshabalala.

A battle for a pay-out

He played his last PSL game in October 2009 before beginning a straining process of claiming insurance money for a premature end to his playing days due to injury.

He was 32 at the time and three years later he was paid R300,000, instead of the R2 million that he thought was due to him.

“I did all the paperwork, but I was robbed,” he explodes. “I was meant to get my share of R2 million with the club getting the other R2 million, but I ended up with R300 000. How so? s I don’t know.

“I involved everyone I could and spent so m much of my money on that case. I got that m money in 2013 after getting injured in 2010, s so you can imagine how many phone calls I made to the insurance company in Cape T Town since I was now dealing directly with t them.

“At the end of the day, it was just a waste. T This was an injury that happened and t there was nothing I could do. I couldn’t p play professional football anymore and it t took long for me to even walk comfortably b because my small toe on the right foot was a amputated.

“Do you know how many tests I had to go t through to prove that what I was saying was r real and, in the end, it was proven that it was? I f there was one thing that I failed to do in f football was to cheat.

“I failed to cheat when I had a chance to b be an age cheat, but my conscience wouldn’t a allow me to. After my injury in my second season at Pirates, I trained four times in one day, twice with the club and twice alone. I realised the need to sacrifice certain things if I wanted to succeed in football,” he narrates, while admitting he was never good with the money that he made when he played.

“I am not good with money to tell you the truth but luckily I was a bit mature. I knew what I needed to do even though I still made mistakes. Seventy percent of my money went wrong and 30 I used it wisely. It is important to invest.

“I left Highlands Park earning R5,000 per month and went to R15,000 take home at Pirates, so it was a total change which means I can now take care of my family, but then there are sustainability matters.

“Fortunately, I don’t like alcohol like that. I was never a party person. The only places I would go to were reggae sessions at Bassline on Thursday nights and Tandoor,” he notes.

Now 43, Tshabalala chooses to keep his family life private and is involved in development coaching in the Vaal.

“THAT SUSPENSION DIDN’T LAST BECAUSE THE FACTS AND TRUTH WERE ALL THERE.”