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“He always won these races.”

“We couldn’t understand a word he said!

Goalkeeper Jorge Fernandes started his playing career at Wits University in 1987. He would go on to feature for Mamelodi Sundowns and Moroka Swallows, before hanging up his gloves in 2005 for medical reasons. “I was diagnosed with an illness where the doctors didn’t know what was wrong and it affected my training and my ability to perform,” reveals the amiable ex-footballer.

Hey, Jorge, long time, what are you up to?

At the moment, I run the commercial division of the Fidelity entity for the Western Cape. We do all the security for all the shops and stuff like that. Also, on March 1, I’m opening up a barbershop in town. Seeing Soccer Laduma is based in Cape Town, maybe I should invite you guys to the opening – there’s going to be a few people there, like Mark Anderson and those guys.

We await the invite. So you’re not involved in the game?

Ah, you know what… I’ve been asked to get involved again, but the soccer thing is a little bit messed up, like it was when we were playing. I don’t have the energy. And it’s not paying, ha, ha, ha. It seems like I was born in the wrong era. If I was born in this era, there would be a lot more opportunity to make a lot more money than we made and to become a lot more secure than we became when I finished playing. You don’t want to know what my first pay cheque was at Wits University when I started out. Well, if you care to know, it was R300 and I don’t think today’s players get paid that an hour!

Ha, ha. So it all started at Wits University for you…

I was at a soccer school that Terry Paine was involved in. He was with Witbank Aces at the time and they were keen on signing me, but for some reason, he didn’t allow me to go. He must have known that Wits were coming up. I signed for Wits the next year – I was 16 going on 17. I played most of that season because Nelson Castro was out injured and, funnily enough, my first game was against Moroka Swallows, whom I would go on to play for, and we won 1-0. Wits was run very well by Ronnie Schloss and Raymond Hack. They had the facilities to run a professional club and we were sponsored by adidas. Terry was a good coach, you know. He had a lot of experience and a lot of influence. Wee hada great pplayersayers tootoo, like e Zoran Illic, Rod Anley, Nelson Castro and Peter Gordon.

Then you made a big move.

Three or four months into the 1990 season, I left for Mamelodi Sundowns. Mark Anderson had just got injured and they needed another goalkeeper. Screamer Tshabalala ran his own show there, so it was totally different.

What do you mean Screamer “ran his own show”?

He had his own tactics which worked very well for the team because we were a team of superstars and I think we won everything that year. He and Trott Moloto had their own methods and it worked. They I was used to, but hats off to them, they made things work. But you know what, that team was also a team full of superstars. They were like the Real Madrid of today! He came up with interesting names for tactics and had the famous “Shoeshine and Piano”. He would come up with clever names like that for his methods and, looking back now, I think he did that just to confuse everybody. He was quite a disciplinarian, if you want to call it that, and was quite hard on us when we were not performing. I was there for three years and it was fun because it was my introduction to playing for a club that I wasn’t used to and getting involved in certain traditions that I had never been exposed to. That was quite interesting…

Hmmm, what are you talking about?

I’m talking about certain things that were done in order to win games, ha, ha, ha. You know, although those were superstars, they still needed the “divine intervention”, ha, ha, ha. It came as a total shock to me. It was an eye-opener and I respected the tradition and what it was trying to do. I cannot recall any incidents with the muti, but the ones I can remember are of Ernest Chirwali and I racing our cars out of Megawatt Park to see who had the fastest car. He always won these races – I had a small Fiat Uno Turbo and he had a big BMW. We’re talking about the Cristiano Ronaldo of that time and I was only 19. The late Ewie Kambule, Mike Ntombela and Anderson were all massive personalities and, as a youngster, I just blended in. I was in awe of all these great players. Funnily enough, I got to play with my hero Anderson. Before I turned pro, I used to follow was rained out and then they came back and won, and he was Man of the Series. It was a great honour for me to go to that club and be amongst him. Now we live in the same town and we’re actually great friends and spend a lot of time together. I think my son likes him more than he likes me, ha, ha, ha.

You made quite a name for yourself at Swallows.

Ha, ha, ha. Interesting times, interesting coaches. Walter Rautmann is one that stands out. He was a character. He coached me when I was 12 or 13, when I went to my first soccer clinic. The funniest thing with him were the funny phrases that he used to come up with. He used to take situations and make some statements out of them that were really, really hilarious. Every time he started out at a club, his opening line would be, “These guys are unfit.” Ha, ha, ha. Then he’d spend the whole month running us into the ground. He also had some strange goalkeeper training sessions with me and Wendell Robinson. I had my fair share of funny coaches, like Augusto Palacios – my word, we couldn’t understand a word he said! Well, he was a little bit more technical and too professional when he got to Sundowns I think. He wanted us to train three times a day and we were still in that era of having day jobs, so it didn’t really go down well with some of us. Viktor Bondarenko would mix up his English with Russian and guys would look at each other as if to ask, “What now?” With him, if you had speed and ran like a cheetah, you were in – it didn’t matter if you were a good player or not.

We digress.

I enjoyed my football the most at Swallows. A Although they were struggling when I got there, the supporters would bring you in and it was like a big family there. With the late David Chabeli, things were run quite differently and some very good players maybe got the wrong end of the stick because of whatever politics were there, but fortunately, I got on with the club and I wasn’t affected. Mr Chabeli was a guy you couldn’t really read hey. You were either in or out with him. I think because Swallows were not living up to their potential and their name at that time, certain people became scapegoats and were banned from playing. I also think he was one of those bosses that appreciated hard work and if he saw you working hard, he was a lot more open and a lot more lenient with you, whereas if you go there looking to take a chance, he would pick up on that very quickly.

Who were the characters?

I became close to brothers Jacob and George Lekgetho, the late Jokhonia Cibi, Mark McVeigh and Gavin Lane. Cibi was maybe the most gifted player that we had, but for whatever reason, I don’t think he reached his full potential there. Superb player! Jacob was just a beast at left back, better than George, but George was more aggressive and I enjoyed playing with him. McVeigh and I played at Aces together and I brought him to Swallows. Lane and I used to play a lot of tricks on him. He was a youngster, so he bore the brunt of all the jokes that we played in the change room. We’d give him the wrong times just to make him late or embarrass him on the plane. He was always a target for Gavin and me off the field.

Jorge, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

Perfect. Have a good one!