PLATINUM CITY ROVERS’ TUMELO MATONA
Hola Tumelo! Before we get going, please have a seat on the “In Touch With…” seat and make yourself comfortable because we want you to pour it all out and leave us in stitches! Hola my brother. Thanks for having me.
You have played for Jomo Cosmos and Sekhukhune United, before joining your current club Platinum City Rovers. You surely must have crossed paths with a funny character or two inside those dressing rooms…
Most of the stories I can remember are from the time I spent with Sekhukhune United. We had some interesting characters in the team while I was there. Willard Katsande was the one person who would dress in a way that would inspire us and he even had his own brand of clothing, but there were some other ways that he would dress and we sometimes did not understand. He had the confidence to wear some of the things that other people would not necessarily wear.
Ha, ha, ha. What are some of the things he would wear?
Let me think… (Pauses) For example, he would wear a blue overall and he would also wear a helmet to go with it.
Is it? He would come to training wearing a helmet!? We know he owns a construction company, but that was a bit extreme.
Yes, he would come wearing it to training. He did not care about what others thought about it. I think there were those who were not close to him, so you would never ask him why he was dressed that way. There was a time when I shared a room with him in camp and he would tell me so many things about what’s happening in football. He is such a good guy.
So, you were never tempted to be so bold as to take a leaf out of his book and rock up in an overall and helmet to training? Ha, ha, ha.
Ha, ha, ha, never! You know people like us are from the township, you would never just dress like that for the sake of it. People would ask what’s happening, but he would wear it and he would not care about it. But for us who are from ko (the) kasi, we knew that would not work, ha, ha, ha. Sometimes he would wear a suit and then the next day he would be wearing a vest. He was an interesting character. I shared a room with him, but I would never ask him why he would dress that way, ha, ha, ha. He did not care about what other people would say about him and that’s one thing I learnt from him. He is one of my mentors.
What a character indeed! Another interesting character that we had in the team was Justice Chabalala. The thing about him is that he was always talking and he made people laugh. We could be jogging around the pitch during training and then everyone started laughing and then we would all stop jogging. Then the coach would ask why we were laughing and then they would make us do extra laps. All because we were laughing at a joke that was made by Justice, ha, ha, ha. Justice is a funny guy. He can dance as well. Katsande is another well who liked dancing in the team. Oh yes… and (Edwin) Gyimah also liked dancing. They would dance for us sometimes.
Really? Gyimah actually looks this very serious guy on the but we’re told that off the field, he is quite the entertainer. We’ve actually seen a few videos of him doing his thing before training, ha, ha, ha. Yes, he is a serious guy, but he is a great guy and I feel great that I was able to be around people like. You would see Gyimah doing some Ghanaian dances and we just enjoyed watching him, ha, ha. Sometimes you would hear him imitating
commentators.
Crazy stuff!
Justice is one of the guys who would eat a lot in the team. He would often say, “The team has paid for this food. We should eat it.” He did not mess around when it came to eating his food.
We imagine his
• He supports Manchester City and Mamelodi Sundowns.
• During his spare time, the central defender spends a lot of time on his PlayStation.
• He was born in Soweto at Baragwanath Hospital.
• Matona is the last-born in his family.
• The former Sekhukhune United man loves watching action movies. plate ‘runneth over’, so to speak. He would have enough food for, let’s say, three people.
Well, they don’t call him ‘The Lion’ for nothing. He devours everything in front of him.
Yes, he eats! He was quite the character when I was there, and it was good that I got to share a dressing room with him. He was such a funny guy.
Is there anything you can remember about the legendary Jomo Sono? We know him to be a man who makes jokes or teases his players when the moment calls for it…
The one thing I can remember at Cosmos is when Bra J said that if he were to get an opportunity to coach Bafana Bafana again, he would start by giving me the captain’s armband and he would take half of his Cosmos team to go play there.
THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT MATONA
Ha, ha, ha, maybe then the national team would need to be renamed ‘Bafana Ba Bra J’ in that case. After all, during his stint as Bafana coach, the squad was Jomo Cosmosheavy, but to be fair, every one of those players deserved to be there. Thato, we gotta leave it there then, before you get into trouble with Bra J.
Ha, ha, ha! Thank you for the opportunity.