TODAY’S STARS INTO BAD HABITS - EFA PRESIDENT

MBABANE – “You are the Roger Miller of Eswatini,” said South Africa’s pay-per-view channel, SuperSport’s Thomas Kwenate.

This was during an interview with the Eswatini Football Association (EFA) President Peter ‘Samora’ Simelane which was part of the Premier League of Eswatini (PLE) Football Show premiere last Friday on two of the SuperSport channels. The host, Kwenate, had asked him what he thought about the standard of the game as someone who also played it and asked how long he played. Simelane responded that he played until he was 49, coming with his elite side Manzini Sea Birds from the regional level and scored his last goal at the elite level.

This prompted Kwenate to label Simelane as the Roger Miller of Eswatini football and of course he remained the oldest to have graced the country’s top flight with Mbabane Swallows’ Wonder ‘Samba Jive’ Nhleko the oldest active elite star at 41 years.  Roger Miller is a Cameroonian great footballer who played until he was 44 years old and managed four goals in the 1990 FIFA World Cup in Italy at 38 years of age.

Drugs

Simelane was also asked how he managed to play until he was that old. “I didn’t smoke and I didn’t drink. Today’s players are into bad habits like drugs which is not good for their game. I played until 49 years old because I trained hard and stayed away from drugs,” he said. The president then sang praises to the PLE for the SuperSport partnership, saying it was encouraging that as yet another step to achieving professionalism of teams, to have the game broadcast in various parts of the world. Also interviewed were Cabinet ministers including Sports, Culture and Youth Affairs Minister Harries ‘Madze’ Bulunga, who voiced out his one wish was for the country to own an international standard stadium. “Government is not able to allocate the funds at the moment but it is my hope that one day we’ll get it from somewhere and be able to build the stadium,” he said.

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