Former Hellenic star Peter Philander has revealed how a transfer to a top European club fell through during his playing days.
The winger, who was scouted by the late Colin Gie during his youth days at Stephanian Ottery AF, signed his first professional contract with Hellenic at the age of 16.
In his debut against Kaizer Chiefs, he was able to score past legendary South African goalkeeper Brian Baloyi and help his team secure a 3-1 win over a star-studded Amakhosi side that included high-profile local players such as Lucas Radebe, Donald Khusa and Howard Freese.
As he continued to show great promise, Philander was called up to South Africa's junior sides where he worked with the iconic Jomo Sono. Philander, who would go onto hang up his boots at the age of 26, has now revealed how his then-agent cost him a move to Ligue 1 side LOSC Lille.
"We were playing in Europe as we went to England, Belgium and there we played some top teams even though we were under 19," the ex-footballer told Kickoff.
"So we were playing (against) Zulte Waregem and there were scouts there. After the game, the late George Hadjidakis and my agent came to me and said Lille is interested in signing me. I think at the time, they said they have a one-year deal for me that was ready to be signed. At that time my agent was our mentor and agent. When we were in Belgium, we were about five players who were desired by different teams and he told us that he had to leave to go to Quinton Fortune in England. He said before he left, 'guys you not signing anything with anybody else until I get back. At that stage, George Hadjidakis had some other agent who was in Europe, I cannot remember his name.
"This agent had the contracts ready for us and he was a coach in Europe while also being connected to Hellenic. He then told me that he has a contract for me but we listened to my agent who said we are not supposed to sign anything as he will be back in a couple of days to negotiate everything. Unfortunately, when Hadjidakis asked us we said no we not allowed to speak or sign anything. However, my agent took longer than expected and we could not get hold of him to come to us and eventually the club gave up on their pursuit of me."
Philander also went onto explain the key differences between his Hellenic side and Chelsea, who they played against during a tour of Europe.
"If I should be honest with you, we actually matched them toe for toe for each and every quality they had," he added.
"However, the one attribute they had in England that you could see those years was the basics of football. You could see it was taught to them as they could pass the ball 100 mph and they would trap the ball. Whereas we in South Africa would pay attention to the weight of the pass to make sure the first touch of our teammate could be good enough. In England, everything was very fast but the first touch was always good. Chelsea played only one or two touch, their players seldomly held onto the ball which was different to what we had. We had players who could run with the ball and eliminate players but they would pass the ball through us and we would hit back with our skill."
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