Mulondo, before we share memories from the past, what are you doing to earn a living nowadays?

Angithi mina (Remember), I stopped playing in 2012. I went back to school and finished my degree in environmental science. I started doing it in 1999, but I had to finish it later because, you know, with (playing) football, I had to do it bit by bit. After you obtain that degree, you can open up your own company and, because you cannot just get work immediately, I opened mine and then I was doing a consulting business on the side. I was working with my other colleagues that I’d gone to school with. I did that for a year or so, and then I went back to Black Leopards as a team manager in 2016. It was going back home for me. If you grow up in a place, leave and then get an opportunity to go back, it’s always nice. For me, it was more like going to check on how the guys were doing, and then we ended up going to the play-offs that season. From then onwards until now, I’ve been into development. There are some kids that I’m teaching football, and we also have some old people that we are training. All in all, I can say I’m having my own NPO (nonprofit organisation) wherein we teach people how to play this game. I started this in my home village (Ngovhela village), but last year I had to stop because I had to help some other guys who were launching five-a-side football around here, you see. I helped them for the most part of last year, so I had to stop with my boys, but most of the boys that I had when I was helping those guys, I took them along. So, right now, I’m starting with them to grow and maybe come up with ways to see where we take them (on the journey) to play professional football.

Let’s now talk about the good old days. Black Leopards is where the story starts.

The funny thing is that mina I didn’t play this developmental football… you see this ABC Motsepe League, Castle League, what-what. From where I was, I just went for trials at Leopards. At the time, they were campaigning in the MTN First Division. I just took my chance while playing for a team that was campaigning in a league called PIB. It was one of those leagues that were under SAFA at LFA level. From there, I jumped straight into the professional ranks. This was in 1997.

You must have been the happiest person alive!

No, you see, it’s everybody’s wish to play professional football. I think it is very much important for us to learn first before we can even consider playing football because from amateur level to professional football, it’s a huge gap. So, for me to jump all those kinds of levels to play for Leopards was a huge, huge jump. It was not easy at first. I remember I was signed on Tuesday and then we played on Saturday, and then I ran away for two weeks, ha, ha, ha. I went to my former coach and told him, “No, no, no, I think it’s better for me to play here.” But because they saw that I could do something, they