NB LA MASIA’S YUSUF JAPPIE

Yusuf, it’s a pleasure hosting you on this page this week. We recently ran an In Touch with your teammate Joshua Sauls, and he shared a hilarious story about how you were making life difficult for the team’s assistant coach Byron Foster by constantly changing the air conditioner temperature in his room, ha, ha, ha. Tell us a bit about that… Yeah, we were in pre-season in Limpopo, at the Baroka Village, ha, ha, ha. You know that it’s hot there and stuff. So, my roommate and I decided that we should turn the heat up in some of the players’ rooms and the coach as well. So, we turned the heat up to 32 degrees on the air conditioner, which was the highest. When the guys got back into their rooms, they were all sweating and they were wondering what was happening, ha, ha, ha. And the thing is, I stole the remotes from their rooms, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha, that’s crazy! You are naughty.

So, then I decided that I was going to go to coach Byron’s room and turn up the heat in his room. When he got into the room, he was like, “I can sleep in this room. It’s very nice.” We were laughing and wondering how he would be able to sleep in there because it was so hot, ha, ha, ha. And then when he left the room, I went in there and I made it cold, like ice-cold. Then he went back into the room and he was like, “I am living in a mortuary”, ha, ha, ha.

Quite the prankster you are. on and tell us about some of pranks you’ve pulled on your mates or coaches…

Please go the other team

There is another prank I pulled on coach Byron. We prank-called him and he was so scared and nervous that day. The next morning, he was telling us that someone had called him the previous night and he did not know what happened, ha, ha, ha.

We wonder what you said to him during that prank call! I just said that someone was looking for himandthathesh ould hide or else he would get hurt, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha, not the kind of call anyone would enjoy getting. You have no mercy on your assistant coach. Ha, ha, ha, not at all.

But does he ever get angry at you for all the pranks you pull on him? No, he doesn’t. He just laughs about it. There was also a time that I got pranked by coach Ashraf Hendricks. I don’t know if you saw that social media challenge where people

• He is the youngest of five children in his family.

• Jappie is a father to three kids.

• He does not know how to cook, but can make eggs and sausages.

• The midfielder loves playing street football.

• The 27-year-old winger puts family first over everything. act lik et hey are spilling tea on you?

Yes, yes, the #FallingTeaCup prank! So, someone comes to you holding an empty cup of tea or coffee and then they act like they are spilling tea on you, even though there is nothing in the mug. So, as I was sitting, he was like, “Here is your coffee.” As he walked towards me, he acted as though he was spilling the coffee on me and I got a fright, but there was nothing in the cup. Yoh, that was bad, ha, ha, ha!

Well, you got a taste of your own medicine. Amazing to hear that even the coaches are now doing these social media challenges…

I think the funniest guy I have ever played with was Eleazar Rodgers. I remember this one time he was telling us that he went to Wimpy for breakfast and the waiter asked how he would like his eggs, like, well done and so on. But then he asked the waiter how he would like his eggs done – hairy or scary?

Ha, ha, ha. Poor waiter must have been so surprised to hear someone saying that…

That one is a real character, I won’t lie. He is definitely one funny guy. You know Eleazar doesn’t really have hair, but he still cuts a fade. He cuts a fade, but there’s really no hair. It’s just those small spikes that he has. He puts gel on, ha, ha.

We’re sure you were always on his case about his hair… or lack thereof, ha, ha, ha. Always, ha, ha, ha. And another thing is that I used to beat him while we were playing FIFA, so he would get angry with me, ha, ha, ha.

C’mon, man, no self-respecting FIFA player likes losing, so it makes sense that he would be angry at you. Let’s carry on…

When I was at Maritzburg United, one of the funny characters we had was (Mxolisi) Kunene. I never knew why they called him ‘Iron Man’, until I realised when we went in for a 50-50 challenge at training, ha, ha, ha,

What happened?

He never got hurt, at all. I was shocked and then I started calling him ‘Iron Man’ as well since then. He used to chase me around and hit me, ha, ha, ha.

But why did he used to chase you?

Because I was calling him ‘Iron Man’ and that I was making fun of him. That guy is strong for his thin body, ha, ha, ha. He is quite the character.

Lots of characters you’ve told us about. So much fun we’ve had. Thank you so much for your time and good luck for the rest of the season with NB La Masia. Thank you for the opportunity.