Coaches I’ve worked with: We knew what playing for Chiefs meant

This week, I’m going to tell you about the late Kaizer C hiefs legend, Johannes Ryder Mofokeng – may his soul rest in peace. The longest-serving captain at C hiefs, coach Ryder was always there for us and taught us a lot about the club. I remember vividly when I was promoted to the senior team, I had gone through that man’s hands in my last years of development at C hiefs. The discipline, the way he groomed us based on his experience, to teach us about what it meant to play for C hiefs, what makes a C hiefs player and what you need to become one. I’m saying this because it is very important for players to understand that whenever they are given an opportunity, they don’t just wait for the coach to tell you about the importance of the game. C oach Ryder used to organise games for us, as juniors, outside of Gauteng and that went a long way in preparing us for the future. Everyone who’s been through coach Ryder’s coaching, together with bro Vincent Williams, will tell you that they got to the senior team without any fear. We knew what playing for C hiefs meant. I believe we were all complete players when we were promoted, thanks to his teachings. We used to play as curtain raisers before the first team, even if they were playing away. That was a massive programme because we were even playing against teams that were five or six years older than us and we faced them away from home. It didn’t make sense to us, at the time, to be playing away, but it turned out to be one of the best things to ever happen. Remember, we were playing league games in Johannesburg, and we’d be transported to Northern C ape straight after the game, for instance, to play a friendly match the next day. There was no time for us to do anything other than training and playing. For Easter holidays, we’d leave home on Thursday and come back on Tuesday.