Do yourselves a favour, go online to Twitter and find the thread about “Alfie”, a young boy playing rugby, posted by his father Mark Pugsley.
I don’t want to go on about it, here’s the tweet: “Had to remove a post from Facebook as an idiot commented saying my boy is too “big” to play under 12s and isn’t healthy.
“If only people knew how hard he works to get fitter and how low his confidence has been. Don’t worry Alfie I’ll always be your biggest fan.”
The thread of replies and responses are pure GOLD! Some of the biggest sports figures and personalities responded to the tweet with messages of support and gifts for the young man.
Guys such as Springbok legend “Beast” Mtawarira have responded to the tweet with a message of encouragement. Goes to show sport can switch things up at the snap of a finger.
Take Cape Town City laaitie Luphumlo Sifumba for example. He siezed his moment, representing Coastal United in the Compact Cup over the weekend.
All the headlines belonged to the Cape’s stars, as they scored all the goals and got a red card.
City defender Taariq Fielies scored the game’s first goal, with Stellenbosch’s Ashley du Preez adding the second before the kid from Philippi put the nail in the Dinaledi coffin.
The 16-year-old youngster came off the bench and truly made the most of his chance with that goal, validating Teko Modise’s belief in him.
There’s been a lot said about the youngster since he broke into the Citizens’ Diski Challenge team last year at 15.
He was set to begin his national team journey with Amajimbos at the U17 Afcon last year, but it was cancelled because of the Covid pandemic.
He has the world at his feet and quite possibly will now be followed by many agents and scouts.
Former NBA star Grant Hill said it best on CNBC’s “Make It”: “Be cautious about your inner circle. You are naturally going to be sceptical of new people, but the people who have been in your life are the ones that sometimes can get tricky.”
He now needs to quickly understand the difference between a chance-taker and those who have his best interests at heart.
Most importantly, he needs to understand where he’s at on his journey right now. Everybody’s talking, but the facts are that this is only just the beginning.
There’s a 15-year-old Mfundo Vilakazi at Kaizer Chiefs who has stolen the imagination of many fans at a similar tournament.
The only difference is that the tournament he played in was organised by local amateurs, while the one Sifumba starred in is organised by the PSL and its broadcast partner.
It’s a massive task dealing with the fame that follows a breathtaking performance. It’s like an actor when the curtain falls at the end of a play on stage.
The City youngster may also need a reality check very quickly. He needs to be told about the greats who did it at the same age he’s at right now.
Somebody needs to tell Sifumba that Benni McCarthy, the coach at AmaZulu was packing Nyanga Stadium at his age.
The ball was bobbling on that uneven pitch which football shared with grazing goats and sheep.
Thousands packed that local venue, playing at right wing a lot of the time even. You never heard him make excuses about where he preferred to play.
You only heard about how he was dodging tackles from grown men who were trying to break his legs because he was running them vrek.
Benni became Mzansi’s most expensive footballer by the age of 21.
Somebody needs to tell him about Gareth Ncaca and Steven Pienaar. Two special talents who dominated youth football locally and even made headlines abroad.
Somebody needs to explain to Kaka that only one of them ended up going all way to Europe.
Ncaca was wanted by Bayern Munich, but for whatever reason, it didn’t happen for him. It worked out for Pienaar though as he joined Ajax Amsterdam and never looked back.
He needs to know that nothing is promised, he still needs to find his space in the whole mix.
Somebody has to make way for him at City. But who will it be? Are they going to be okay for a kid taking their place?
He needs to be given all the tools to set his own goals. Nothing must be hidden from him
Most importantly, he needs to kick a football. He needs to kick a football a lot. He needs to play.
Again, guys like Benni played football all the time. They were playing top tournaments such as the Bayhill, Polar Ice (now Engen KO) and also played for Province, with some top guys and were coached by Farouk Abrahams, a legend in his own right
All this while also playing regular first-team football at their clubs. Guys were playing. They were not on social media feeding on the hype.
From me Kaka mdlali, hay’ ndithi hamba sani (go forth). I hope everybody treats you well and fair.
Like Alfie’s dad, I’m a huge fan. Dlala mdlali (play on player)!