When Orlando Pirates came calling for his services over a decade ago, Sifiso 'Jomo' Vilakazi shivered at the thought of having to compete with Benni McCarthy – who was also on his way to the Bucs.
In the end, Vilakazi didn't join Pirates and while years have since passed on, he still vividly remembers the details.
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Vilakazi hung his boots in July 2014 after having played his PSL football at Free State Stars, Ajax Cape Town, BidVest Wits, and AmaZulu.
"It was a sad story, but I think I got scared as well," admits Vilakazi in recalling the chance to join Pirates.
"Truth be told, the reason why I didn't go to Pirates was because of Benni (McCarthy) because he was on his way to Pirates as well at the time.
"I just asked myself 'will I stand a chance competing with Benni?'.
"My answer was an emphatic no.
"All else related to my contract at Pirates was already done but then I got terrified by the thought of going to compete with Benni.
"Would you blame me for having been frightened by Benni?
"Benni is a big player and comes with experience and they also had Juju (Thulasizwe Mbuyane) still doing well for the club.
"The issue at hand was that I still wanted to play regular football instead of sitting on the bench.
"I was around 32/33 at the time so I felt I still needed to play instead of going to end up getting frustrated at Pirates," he explains.
There was also a chance to end up at Kaizer Chiefs.
"With Chiefs it wasn't as much of a tangible deal because it was something that I only discussed with Doc (Doctor Khumalo) and Abel Shongwe who suggested that they would recommend a meeting with Kaizer Motaung.
"That time, I had already signed for Wits, so I ran away and switched off my phone," says Vilakazi.
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