Tade: You feel the club’s spirit

After bulging the net countless times over a number of years for Auckland City in New Zealand’s Premier League, Emiliano Tade decided on a new venture in South Africa at the beginning of the 2018/19 season. On the evidence of it, AmaZulu were the lucky ones to snatch his services, as the attacker has proved useful in the short time he has been with the Durban-based club. In the process, the Argentinean-born star with an eye for goal has managed to catch the eye of even the neutrals, who can be so biased at times that nothing much matters to them outside the realm of Kaizer Chiefs, Orlando Pirates and Mamelodi Sundowns. Who is this lad? Soccer Laduma’s Celine Abrahams finds out.

Celine Abrahams: Emiliano, thanks for taking the time to chat. You’ve had a quite an interesting football journey, moving from your home country of Argentina to New Zealand and now you find yourself in South Africa.

Emiliano Tade: Hmm, yes, it’s been pretty good to be here at AmaZulu. Obviously, at the beginning, it takes some time to adjust and to get myself not only to get to know my teammates, but the club, the city and the country. I’m enjoying it so far and obviously now is when things start to get harder in terms of playing and the games, but I am very excited. Football is always going to be a journey and for me it’s no different. I am enjoying every moment and learning as much as I can about everything that I need to know. Getting into football was not my second choice… it has never been that way. For me, it is about being in a place where you really want to be and that’s all that matters. I think it is like ‘football’ and then ‘the rest’. Football started for me back in my home in Argentina and I wasn’t getting much out of it, but I was doing a lot in order to make it. I heard of an opportunity and then one thing led to another and I found myself moving to New Zealand.

CA: It must have been quite an experience moving away from your home country for the first time.

EM: That was one experience that I call a beautiful challenge in my career because getting out of my comfort zone and going to a completely different country, with a different coach, club, a different language was huge. But it was a beautiful journey and a beautiful challenge, something that every footballer should want to experience in their career because you get to learn more, so much more, when you go to different places. These are the things we need to face in life and not always to be happy with where we are. We as footballers need to challenge ourselves and it was a self-discovery journey as well, which made it even better. I really enjoyed every single step of it and I think it showed on the field with my performances.

CA: Interestingly, you talk about the language barrier…

EM: (Laughs) Yes, well, sometimes when you really need something and you don’t want to be left out, you do all that you can to learn. I had to learn because I had to make sure that I could talk and have conversations with everyone at the team and just for everyday life. I knew that I couldn’t go around speaking my language because no one would know what I was saying, so I had to make time to learn. It becomes a necessity to learn and that’s how it was for me at the beginning. But that comes down to every person and how they view their life. I am the type of person that likes to learn different things and that’s why I always made sure that wherever I went, I learned as much as I could. I always tried to get better at it and I think I am quite okay now, I guess. Now, when I look back, I see how far I have come and how it has become easier for me. It just shows that when you want to achieve something, you have to put in a lot of work. I put in a lot of work to make sure that I grow not only as a player but as a person too. CA: So, seeing the journey of self-discovery was going so well for you, why decide to leave the land of the Kiwi for South Africa? EM: It was probably for like a few years already that –a guy in New Zea- land, who saw me playing for some time, he made contact with another guy, who is nowadays my agent. They tried to bring me here way back, but unfortunately, it couldn’t happen at the time. Probably this was the right time for me to come here and not when we wanted it to. I think this is the right moment and, obviously, I feel this was the right decision to move here and join AmaZulu. It was actually a very big deal for me to come here because I came into the country about four years ago but that was just to travel around. I must say that I fell in love with everything about this place – the atmosphere, the environment, the people, the dynamics. The history obviously is very interesting and I told myself that I want to come back here one day, and here I am! I enjoyed that trip so much and the country was on my list. So when the chance came for me to come here it was an easy decision to make because of that.

CA: You talk about the history. AmaZulu, as the club’s name suggests, are steeped in history, and are one of the oldest clubs in the country. What have you learned from your teammates about the culture of the team?

EM: After so many years of travelling around the world, seeing different cultures has become part of my lifestyle. That’s how I live and that’s how I enjoy my life. I live by hearing everyone else’s stories and it’s really nice to be in a club that is so cultural. It’s very interesting for a foreign player because you are not only in the team to play but to also live a life, a life where you can learn and try to relate to the people around you. It’s been interesting for me and it was actually easy for me to get used to the city and to the club because everyone made it easy for me to fit in. I think the biggest challenge for me was to adapt to the league, but things are getting better as I get to play more games. There is a different style of football and that was the only difference for me. When it comes down to the lifestyle, that is something I get used to very fast. I am a very simple man and very easygoing, so I think that’s what helps me to fit in as well. I didn’t really need my teammates to tell me everything because you can already feel that spirit the moment you walk into the club and I think that is something very spe- cial. When you walk into the office and talk to the people there, when it’s game day and you connect with the supporters, you really feel that love. I think it is very special to see things like that happening. One of my first experiences was when the club took us to a place… it’s like a land very deep in the province where you get to see the Zulu culture and learn the history. That was a highlight for me. The supporters are also so welcoming. It has been an unbelievable experience for me over the past few months and I am looking forward to doing more for the club because they have already done so much for me. I want to repay them. CA: Coach Cavin Johnson gave you your first taste of Absa Premiership action against Baroka FC where AmaZulu won 1-0. EM: It was a good one for the team and I got a chance to play, which was very good. I got to see what I needed to improve on and learn about how different the style was here. I must say that the standard of the league is high and there is a lot expected from you as a player, which can be good or bad depending on how you as a person take it. It made me see a lot of things and I haven’t felt pressure because everyone helped me to set- tle in. The coach has been good to me and my teammates have been helping me, so I feel at home. I have managed to start scoring, which is good. I now have three goals (in all competitions) and I want to work on that and score more so that we can achieve our goals as a team.

CA: All the best in making that a reality, Emiliano.

EM: Thank you so much.

“It was a beautiful journey.” “I fell in love with everything about this place.”