In Touch With LA MASIA’S JOSHUA SAULS (PART 1)

Howzit, Joshua? Thanks for making time to be with us this week. You’ve actually been around for what seems like eternity, with quite a number of clubs listed under your ‘previous clubs’ column. Therefore, you must be a fountain of football tales. Go for it! I remember Lebogang Mothibantwa…. I am sure you remember him.

Ha, ha, yes, “Congo” … Great midfielder for Bloemfontein Celtic, never reached heights expected of him at Orlando Pirates. We hear he’s now into coaching. At this point, we were at Garankuwa United. We were in a difficult position on the log at the time. I think there were three games to go in the season and we were facing relegation. But we still had a chance to survive. We were planning for our next game and the players came together and spoke. And Lebo, as an experienced player… I think he was just frustrated by the fact that we would lose and no changes were being made and the guys were not being told the truth. So, he started to speak and bashed everybody and was telling everybody how bad they were and how they cost the team. So, what was crazy is that he was saying that he was the one that should be played because the situation required experienced players. The next day, we played away from home, but I can’t remember who it was against… I think it was (Maluti) FET College. He started the game. We had a good game, and the guy got a red card, ha, ha, ha! Obviously, the tables had turned now, and we were under pressure. We ended up getting relegated. The funny thing was that he said that if they played him, we would get out of the situation. Then they played him, and he got a red card and we ended up getting relegated. It was really funny, ha, ha, ha. But what a character he was. A top man, what a player. He was a funny guy. That’s one of the stories I can remember from my time at Garankuwa United.

Ha, ha, ha, he figuratively saw red in the change room, and then he saw red on the field!

And you must know that he i snotaguyw ho keeps quiet. He always talks. But after that red card, that man was so quiet. Even on the bus, he was so quiet. It was as though Lebo never went with us to the game. He was so embarrassed, shame. It was so crazy, ha, ha, ha. There was really nothing for us to say after that because we got relegated. All our hearts were broken, so he was just lucky that we all forgot about the whole situation. But obviously the guys did speak amongst each other, but obviously not loud for him to hear, you know. He was just fortunate that we all felt it because we got relegated. I think if it was not for that, all hell would have broken loose, yho!

You are probably right. What an interesting story to kick things off. move on.

Let’s

Since we are on the topic of relegation, I have another story. This time it’s from Witbank Spurs. We were going through this time of relegation with Spurs. So, you know during difficult times you want to do anything to try to get the guys motivated. Our goalkeeper coach at the time came up with this idea instead of coming into a circle and saying, “One, two, three, Spurs!” So, he changed the entire war cry. Rather than us saying anything else, he said we should say, “One, two, three, save Spurs from relegation!” Imagine, all this is happening while we are on the field and the opponents are looking at us.

Th ere feree is looking at us and waiting to start the game. Then we shout, in an empty stadium, “One, two, three, save Spurs from relegation!” I mean, how does that make sense? We did that, but he said if we said it, he believed we wouldn’t get relegated. We said it again and guess what?

Oh no, ha, ha, ha. Spurs got relegated, ha, ha, ha. Crazy, I tell you.

Well, the war cry did not work at all. Just like playing with Lebo did not work, ha, ha, ha. As you know, the English language in the football industry never loved us. Eish, it’s tough. There was this player at Spurs, the late Mogau (Tshehla). He was Percy Tau’s brother. He also played for Polokwane City, but we were teammates at Spurs. He was a very good right back. So, we had a friendly game at Puma Rugby Stadiuman d he decided to be the referee. We did not have a referee, so he took the whistle. As the game went on, one of the opponents got hurt and went down. He was taken off the pitch and got treated. But you know that before you come back onto the

THINGS YOU DIDN’T KNOW ABOUT SAULS

He is the last-born of four boys. The experienced striker started off as a drummer before football. He has been married for eight years.

• Sauls admits Whitney Houston was his crush. It can be said he had the Greatest Love of All for the late American singer!

• The 35-year-old player is a pastor’s kid (PK). pitch, you need to signal to the referee. So, I think because it was a friendly game, that guy thought that he could just come back onto the pitch. But Mogau wanted to be respected as the referee, ha, ha. So, Mogau saw that the guy was back on the field and he stopped the whole game. Everyone was wondering what was happening. All the attention was on Mogau. He walked to the boy shouting and he said, “Player, you can’t come in and coming in again.” Yho, my man! When he said that, we were all in stitches, ha, ha, ha.

Brilliant!

Whenever I saw him after that, that’s all I would think about. He said, “You can’t come in and coming in again.” It was a song for us throughout the season. If we wanted to be happy, that’s the thing we would talk about. I would just look at him and laugh. That’s how bad his English was.

Ha, ha, ha. We can imagine how funny a moment that was for you and the rest of the team. Thank you so much for your time this week, Joshua. You’re such a fantastic raconteur. We look forward to hearing more from you next week. At least here on this page, you’re allowed to ‘come in and coming in again’. Ha, ha, ha, thank you for the opportunity.