Meet the Mzansi version of Zlatan
Sedwyn George is living a dream. He was a ball-boy for Maritzburg United when their coach was Kosta Papic and he dreamed of playing under the Serb mentor. Today, the 25-year-old is an accomplished player, is the leading scorer in the National First Division (NFD) with 17 goals – and he is coached by Papic.
“It still feels surreal. I used to watch Maritzburg and thought one day I wanted to play for the team, because Papic was always friendly and joked with us all the time,” says George, who credits Papic’s style of play for the goals he has scored, saying it allows them to get many balls upfront.
“The way we attack ensures we get balls all the time and that is what you want as a striker. The system allows us to score – as you can see I am not the only one scoring,” said George.
Eagles have scored the most goals in the division with 38 and George’s strike partner, Raymond Monama has also netted 10 times.
George said he was groomed from an early age by his father Winston who encouraged him to make a name for himself in whatever he did.
“My father played football and he took me under his wing when I was six and groomed me. It was always school and football for me. Nothing else,” said George.
Things didn’t always go George’s way in football and after finishing his matric, he opted to pursue a career in biochemistry. But the football bug had already bitten him, and his love for the game kept growing although he was only playing socially.
“I went to university and studied biochemistry … but I had to drop out when Maritzburg invited me for a trial. Unfortunately I didn’t make the cut, but I will always be grateful to coach Mandla Ncikazi because he sat me down and told me where I needed to improve so I could be at my best. I followed his instructions and took football seriously again,” he explained.
It was by chance that George ended up at Eagles. “We had formed a team and were playing socially when we got the chance to play a friendly match against Eagles. That is where they spotted my talent and asked me to join them.”
George said he is trying to avoid the limelight, and said the focus now is on helping Eagles win promotion to the Absa Premiership.
“The next step?” he pauses before adding: “Is to win the league and gain automatic promotion.” Eagles trail NFD leaders Thanda Royal Zulu by eight points and George believes they can still go all the way, though they lost 2-0 last weekend to lowly Milano United.
“These things happen. I don’t know how it happened, maybe we were not fully focused because they had lost five matches in a row and we had easily beaten them before. But yesterday (Sunday) they were fighting. They got to the ball first and fought for every ball. They were hungrier than us,” he admitted.
He said the fact that Thanda had also lost on Saturday was comforting, but also stressful. “If we had won, we would have closed in on them,” he said.
Like his childhood idol, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, George also sports a ponytail on top of his head, and would also like to play for Paris St Germain.
“I would love to don the PSG shirt one day ... but baby steps, baby steps,” he said in a lowered voice. He could not be drawn to comment on teams who have reportedly had an interest in his services recently, saying he had to focus on helping Eagles win promotion first. And he is happy playing under Papic.
“And in closing I’d like to say that God is everything. He gives us a gift and places a desire in our hearts to chase our dreams. We shouldn’t ignore that desire and that dream,’’ he said.