admin
Zemura
AS football players we have a mentality that society owes us a favour just because we play football or once played football.
My humble appeal, especially to former players is that let us not be relaxed after playing football. We need to up our game and move on with our lives. We need to better ourselves by doing courses for instance fitness training, administration and coaching.
Let’s not live on the past glory just because we were good or the best footballers. We need to upgrade ourselves. As the phrase says, “success is to keep looking for frontiers to conquer, leave your past where it belongs, in the past”.
We must not be crybabies. We need to be united for a common purpose. We must accept that our stay in playing football was shortened by age or injuries. There is so much that we can contribute to football. We should also motivate the ones playing football now.
God created us for a special purpose in the game and we must open new avenues. Imisebenzi yethu esasiyenza ebhoreni yiyo eyayiphezulu thina siphansi, so let’s not tell ourselves ukuthi sesawa. (It is the job that we used to do of playing football that was held with high esteem, not us as individuals, so there is no reason why we should look down upon ourselves now).
Don’t ever think that you are useless after playing football. We need to swallow our pride and educate ourselves. Let’s take for instance George Weah, he is now the President of the country of Liberia, but he was a football player. It is because he never undermined himself so I believe every former footballer still has an opportunity in life. El Hadji Ousseynou Diouf is the advisor to the President of Senegal, and he is a former player, having played for the national team and Liverpool, among other clubs. And former TP Mazembe and DRC national team goalkeeper Robert Kidiaba is now a Member of Parliament.
We need to swallow our pride so that we can move on in life.
There are some former players who are doing a great job. For instance there is Desmond Maringwa and Herbert Dick who are leading the Footballers Union of Zimbabwe (FUZ) and Richard Choruma as well who have been attending some administration courses. That is a very good thing.
I repeat, the society owes us nothing, we owe it to ourselves to work hard for ourselves, our families. We owe it to ourselves to move on with life after playing football, no matter the circumstances.
However, we can still contribute to the game, one way or the other.
Till we meet again next week, I will be telling it as it is. Stay blessed.
derick.khumalo