There’s no ‘I’ in team

I’m from the school of thought sport and politics don’t mix very well.

I guess it’s because our own football politicians don’t handle themselves very well when they have to mix politics and our beloved Diski.

What an incredibly awesome and unforgettable experience it was to hang out with Germany's ambassador to South Africa and watch the Bundesliga’s biggest match between Borussia Dortmund and Bayern Munich last weekend.

It’s not a derby, but rather a rivalry between the two biggest teams in German football.

The ambassador, Martin Schäfer, is a massive football fan.

First of all, unlike many politicians who you’ll meet, the man is not hung up on being called “Your Excellency” or any of that kind of stuff.

He quickly corrects you and says: “please, call me Martin”.

He was pacing around the room and was shouting at the screen and at times threw his hands in the air in disbelief and made some interesting fans in the process as well.

It was amazing to see because he is not even a fan of any of the teams that were playing. The man is a football fan, period.

It makes you wonder if our very own politicians in football and otherwise watch football with that same passion and interest.

Anyway, champions Bayern won the match 3-2.

But not only did I get to rub shoulders with Martin, I also got to hang out with South Africa’s own Bundesliga legend, Delron Buckley.

It's been 19 years since the Durbanite's breakthrough from the VfL Bochum reserves to being a player around our streets who can claim that they were in a team that beat Bayern.

That was when he was playing for Dortmund at the height of his career, when they beat Bayern in the DFL Super Cup back in 2008.

Buckley is now the assistant coach at Maritzburg United, so we also got to discuss the local game and the differences between South African diski and the German game.

He has experienced both while he was a player in the Bundesliga, for Bafana Bafana and when he finished his career at Maritzburg in his late 30s.

He still cracks a smile that he received his last Bafana call up at the age 37, and doesn’t hesitate to say that: “Bafana Bafana is not the same as our time”.

See, there’s been a few off-the-pitch issues for Bafana as they prepare for the back-to-back qualifiers against Sao Tome and Principe this week.

There was the issue of the uniforms and recently six players withdrawn on medical reasons.

Buckley believes the players must ignore all of that and focus on the game because that is what is important.

He says: “It’s an advantage for us because we will be playing at home, so they must go there and give 100 percent and they must remember they are not just playing for themselves but for everyone.

“They must play as a team. The acronym of TEAM is Together Everyone Achieves More. So they must take into consideration that you can only win games if you’re a team.”

Bafana will host both ties with the matches taking place on Friday and Monday in Durban and PE respectively.

[email protected]