I felt disrespected
“I’ve suffered a lot in my football career, from an early age.”
One of the most talented players in Mzansi, Luvuyo Memela’s football journey has been a bumpy one. With 36 appearances, nine goals and one assist, he was one of AmaZulu FC’s standout performers last season, hence his departure took many by surprise. Now on the books of Richards Bay, Soccer Laduma’s Tumi Gabonamong caught up
with the left-footed star as he revealed the reasons behind his Usuthu exit as well as what he intends to achieve at his new home…
Tumi Gabonamong: Congrats on your move to Richards Bay FC. You left it pretty late, didn’t you?
Luvuyo Memela:
I put in a lot of work on my own to make sure I’m in mint condition, but it’s obviously not the same as working out with a team. I just need a week or so to train with the team and gel with everyone, to understand how the team plays and so forth. And to know everyone’s names so that I don’t end up calling them ‘player, player’, ha, ha, ha. When I got to Ajax Cape Town back then for trials, players used to say to me, “Ey, player, pass the ball. Player, do this and that”, and I’d say to them, “Hawu! Guys, I told you my name is Amigo”, ha, ha, ha. But yes, I’m happy to embark on this new chapter with Richards Bay.
TG: You were one of the top achievers at the recently held awards by your former team, AmaZulu FC.
LM: Honestly, it gave me joy that they could still award me even when I’m not part of the team anymore. I’m grateful that, as much as whatever happened, they were honest enough to say this belongs to this guy. I knew already I’d get those awards as some of the people from there had told me already that I won.
TG: There were talks of the club wanting you back recently. What was going on?
LM: I don’t really know what that was about. My agent only asked me how I would feel if it were to happen and I just said to her we’ll see when it happens but kuzoba nzima (it will be difficult). We never got into it that much and as much as I was open to saying, let’s hear what they will say, it was going to be a tough decision.
TG: How so? LM:
One thing about me, I’m a person of principles and not to say I value myself as such, but I value my dignity. Isidima yinto ebalulekileyo (Dignity is something important). I value good relationships, so I don’t know how it was going to be really to re-join the team. I was open to the possibility, but I didn’t
want a situation where I’d pretend. How was I going to look at them again? Something in me felt like you know what, that happened, it’s over, move on… you know what I mean? But had they reached out, I was ready to ask the seniors in the team, ‘Why now?’ If they called my agent, I was going to ask her to please ask them to call me before I made any decision, just to find out from them if they still felt the same way they felt about me two years ago.
TG: You had a stellar stint there and your departure shocked many. What exactly happened?
LM:
Look, negotiations didn’t go well between myself and AmaZulu. We couldn’t agree on terms and that was it. These things happen in football.
TG: Surely you couldn’t have anticipated it?
LM: I didn’t anticipate it by a long shot, at all, but look, you can never be 100% sure in football, especially here in South Africa. Anything can happen out of nowhere. I was looking forward to continuing with the team and wanted to help them achieve what we had set out to achieve this season because the last one wasn’t a good one at all.
TG: Disappointed? LM:
Ja, obviously, I am. And it’s not just me, most of the guys are pretty disappointed too. If you check all the guys that were released, it’s not just me who’s disappointed. I gave my everything to the club, I fought hard for it, I really did, and to leave in this way was pretty upsetting. But look, my entire football career has, for some strange reason, always panned out this way and I made peace with it a long time ago. I learnt to have a strong heart and mindset a while back, hence I’ve accepted this and moved on. I had told myself, or well, hoped that AmaZulu would be a club I’d retire at. I remember even the chairman (Sandile Zungu) having meetings with us players individually last season, after coach Benni (McCarthy) left, and he jokingly suggested to me that if he were me, he’d retire at AmaZulu. And we were not even talking about contracts or anything at the time, he was just trying to find out how we were all feeling at the time. Before he even said anything, that’s when he made that statement. I just smiled and we both laughed and that was it.
TG: Where did it go wrong then? LM:
Look, I had an existing option and straight after the season ended, after our last game, my agent called me to say she wants to see me and I remained in Durban for a couple of days to obviously know what’s happening and what’s the decision before I go home. When I met my agent, she presented the offer that the club was offering me and they told her they will not go higher on the figures they were proposing. I wanted a straight twoyear deal. I already had an option of a season, so I basically wanted an extra season on top of the one-year option that I had. They were offering me those two years as well… the only problem was that what they were offering me is what I was getting when I joined (Orlando) Pirates from the National First Division all those years back. The one-year option we had in place had the right numbers, but that became irrelevant because they wanted to cut my salary overall if I signed the new deal. I said to my agent I won’t do that because it felt like I was moving backwards. I felt disrespected, to be honest with you. Had they perhaps explained to me first what’s happening, why they are looking to cut my salary, just maybe I would have understood, but no one spoke to me. They made their decision a long time ago, clearly, and I had to move on, honestly. Sometimes people do things just to get what they want. Maybe them offering me a reduced salary knowing I won’t accept it was part of the deal.
TG: And that’s when news of your exit broke?
LM: Yeah, that’s pretty much how it went down. I said to my agent I’m not happy with their deal, can she perhaps speak to them again and tell them what I want? She insisted they are unlikely to change their minds as they made it very clear to her they will not increase or change what they were offering me. I was still waiting for feedback from her when they broke the news, but because she had been honest in saying they won’t change their minds, I was prepared for it. They had made up their minds already that if you don’t take it, then that’s it. It was a ‘take it or leave it’ kind of situation. They sent my agent my clearance and made the announcement soon after that – that’s it.
TG: Did you speak to anyone from the club directly when you were waiting?
LM: I wanted to speak to the chairman just to find out what’s happening. I tried, I tried. I spoke to the Director, Manzini Zungu, and the manager as well, but they both said to me the chairman says he won’t speak to me or any player. They said the chairman says if there’s anything I want to address, I should speak to the General Manager and he’ll be the one speaking to him. I spoke to the GM, but it made no difference at the end of the day. He was honest with me that if I’m not happy with the deal, I must look elsewhere. He just said, ‘If I were you, boy, I’d leave.’ I knew at that point what I wanted wasn’t going to materialize.
TG: That’s sad, Amigo. LM:
Absolutely. I had just wanted to speak with him because he had always said his door is open for us players to speak to him. He always said, ‘Guys, if you have anything (to say), come to me’, so it was a bit disappointing that I couldn’t speak to him when I tried to. Maybe he was busy, I don’t know.
TG: You mentioned earlier that you’ve experienced this similar ‘rejection’ situation before. Would you describe your Bucs exit the same as this one?
LM:
Similar in terms of negotiations falling apart yes, but as far as how it went down at AmaZulu, very different. Pirates never wanted to cut my salary. We discussed back and forth and, in the end, we couldn’t reach an agreement and that was it. We were both fine about it and everything was done professionally. There were no funny things.
TG: Football for you hey. LM:
It’s not anything new in football… they’ll ask for your help, and when you help them, they can easily forget about you tomorrow. It’s football. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted. I’ve suffered a lot in my football career, from an early age, and that has made me to be mentally stronger.
TG: Take us back to the time the game hurt you the most. LM:
Yho! I’d say when Ajax Cape Town told me they were releasing me after spending four years with them, three of which were with the development team and the last year was one I got promoted to the first team by Muhsin Ertugral. I was always on the bench that season, must have had about 20 or 21 games on the bench, but I was happy. I was learning an incredible lot from the guys who were playing. Then, just a few days before the new season was about to start in August, I got a call to come to the office. The league was starting on Saturday, they called me to the office on Wednesday. I got there and the
CEO at the time, George Comitis, just said to me, “Amigo, I don’t want to beat around the bush, but the new coach, Foppe de Haan, is saying he’s not going to play you, so we need to release you.” I was shattered and shocked because the coach had always been complimenting me at training. He had engaged with me thoroughly, asking me how long I had been at Ajax and so forth. George went on tosayhe’dtalktoVascodaGama next door, who had just gotten promoted to the PSL (topflight) at the time. I could see he was on the phone and speaking to the people at Vasco, but I was so heartbroken my mind wasn’t even in that office. I was helpless, I wanted to ask how was that possible and if I could speak to the coach, but I was so young, I was scared to even ask the coach. I was 21 and, at the time, I had been staying with those families that had been looking after us, for a good two years. It was me, Thulani Hlatshwayo and Thulani Serero, and I was the first to leave. I went to Vasco and after my first week training there, their coach told me, “You know what, Memela, you are a good player, but we just got promoted and you don’t have experience at Ajax and we are looking for players with experience right now.” I left their training pitch and, on my way home, I saw Ajax training and went past there. Coach Foppe then asked me how was Vasco and that he heard I signed for them. I told him, “No, coach, I was just on trial at Vasco. They want experienced players.” Then I plucked the courage to tell him I was told he won’t use me, and he was like, “Huh? What?” He didn’t say anything after that, he just started speaking in Dutch and walked away, but I could sense he was upset. I was standing there confused as to what was happening lana (here). Like, who’s fooling who here? Ajax were always loaning out players to NFD teams, so it was weird that they were not even considering loaning me out. They just said hamba (go). It was painful for me, but I had to take it like a man. I recollected myself, grinded in the NFD and it took me about six years to get back to the PSL when I joined Pirates. One thing I’ve learnt in the game is to never hold grudges or sulk. You take it in, you pray and hope God
will guide your steps.
TG: What a journey. Keep your head up, Amigo and wishing you all the very best with the Rich Boyz this season.
LM: Thanks, sis’ wam (my sister). ❐