NB LA MASIA’S YUS UF JAPPIE

(PART 2)

Yusuf, here you are, once more! Thank you for the opportunity again.

Well, let’s continue from where we left off last week then. You really left us in stitches man, and this instalment couldn’t come soon enough for our readers. Hope you don’t disappoint even this time around. The first funny story I can think of this week happened recently at training with coach Delano (Hendricks). He called me Eminem because of the way I cut my hair. So, I then left it at that. The next day at training I just walked, and I said, “At least the wind can blow through my hair”, and the rest of the coaches were all just laughing at that moment.

Why? Is it because coach Delano does not have hair? Yes, ha, ha, ha. He was laughing so hard when I said that, and he was like, “You thought hard about that one”, and I told him, “Yes, I had to have a comeback”, ha, ha, ha. Coach Delano is quite the character, but when it’s time to work, we work. Off the field, he cracks jokes like nobody’s business. He also does not mind when players poke a bit of fun at him. He is a fun guy because he makes fun of anyone in the team and we all just laugh about it. Whenever there is a moment to crack a joke, then he will, and it’s so nice to have a coach like that, you know.

A players’ coach. Eminem should be your new nickname then, what do you think? Ha, ha, ha. Coach Delano is really funny. He calls me “China man”. He just gave me that name.

Seems you like China man more than TikTok vid eow here they say, “Morifi, don’t

Eminem, so let’s not force the issue run”?

here. Go on and tell us a bit more about some of your teammates. On the bus, the two guys who always make jokes are Augustine (Mahlonoko) and Tshidiso Tukane. With those two around, no one is ever safe. They are the two main characters in the team and they laugh non-stop. There was a time when we played away from home in Polokwane and “Dona” (Tukane) kept on saying that Sizwe (Jaca), who is part of our team, looks like (Khethokwakhe) Masuku. Masuku was not happy about this and he wanted to punch Dona in the bus, ha, ha, ha. We were all laughing about it. Masuku really wanted to go for him, ha, ha, ha.

Ha, ha, ha. Do they look alike?

Not really. Maybe there are similarities here and there, but not really. Masuku was not happy about that. We lost that day, but because of the way we lost the game, we did not take it too hard, so we were still able to crack jokes all the way home in the bus. But there was also a time when they were making a joke about Tukane. You know that

Yes…

There was a video of a midget, and they were chasing him and the guys were saying that’s Dona. They sent that video to the group and we were all laughing at him.

Poor Dona, getting a taste of his own medicine from his teammates.

Another funny moment I can think about happened not so long ago. We were heading to a game, to go for the prematch team talk. So, my brother was the one taking us to the field. So, as we got to the robot, Fuad Johnson looked at the car next to us and decided to ask them if they wanted to race. But English was a problem, ha, ha, ha. So, he asked the guy, “Do you want to raced?”

Eish! That’s the Queen’s language for you. Sometimes it disappears on you when you need it most, ha, ha, ha…

We were laughing so hard and even the guys in the other car were laughing at him. We did not even race with those guys because we were just laughing so hard due to what he said. There is another guy in our team, Sihle (Ntshuntshe). He and Fuad will always battle each other to see who is bottom of the table when it comes to speaking English. If one of them says something wrong, then they go to the bottom of the table, and vice versa. It’s like a battle between the two of them.

Hilarious. So, who is usually at the bottom of the table when it comes to

butchering the language?

It’s Sihle. Every day, they want to force speaking English, but they can’t. Sihle must stick to speaking IsiZulu and IsiXhosa and Fuad must stick to speaking Afrikaans. If you were to hear them, you would actually feel sorry for them, ha, ha, ha. We are having a field day with them every single day, I won’t even lie.

Before we let you go, do you have one more character in the team you can share a funny story about?

I think one of the other characters in our team is “Jomo” (Tshepo Matsemela). He played for Jomo Cosmos and he played in the kasi games. He always makes fun of my head, but I always tell him that his head is even bigger than mine. He has an oval-shaped head and then he wants to talk about my head, ha, ha, ha. He is such a funny guy. But because we’ve known each other for so long, we always have a go at each other. No one takes it personal.

In that case, we would be interested to see what the head-to-head stats have to reveal. Maybe one of you should be bottom of the table, ha, ha, ha. That’s where we leave it, mate. Thanks so much for your time this week and all the best going forward. Thank you for the opportunity.