In this edition of Story Behind The Nickname, former Kaizer Chiefs defender Rudolf Seale reveals, for the first time, how he had to live with people mistaking his real name for a moniker.
Regarded as one of the club's best ever left-backs, Seale, who also played for the likes of Giant Blackpool and SuperSport United, used to overlap when it was still not fashionable to do so, in the National Soccer League era.
How it came about
"Most people thought 'Gardner' was my nickname when it is actually my middle name.
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"I don't know how that happened, but I never really had a nickname that stuck with me, to be honest with you.
"There were times when some would call me 'Mgababa' after Gerald 'Mgababa' Dlamini. He used to go up and down the flanks like I used to.
"Saddam Maake used to call me 'Apla', but I don't know why. I don't hate any of those names and I don't like any. I'm not obsessed with nicknames."
Who gave it to you and why?
"Somebody said to me, the way I used to slide-tackle, it was as if I was a gardener, but do gardeners even slide-tackle? I don't know. I don't know how people associate Gardner with a nickname because it's my real name, even though I must admit that it's not on my ID card.
"It's what my mother and father call me, Gardner. My father was once interviewed by Tim Modise on Radio Metro, and he asked him, 'Are you the father of Gardner Seale?' and my father said, 'Yes'.
"Then Tim asked my dad why they decided to name me Gardner, and my father's explanation was, when my mom was still pregnant with me, she used to do gardening a lot, so hence Gardner."
Did you like it when fans turned it into a nickname?
"The only name I don't feel or like is the Rudolf one. To me, it sounds Dutch [laughs]. But anyway, a name is a name, we still have people called Piet.
"So, in short, I didn't have any problem with people using my real name Gardner as my nickname. It's not disrespect."
Anyone that didn't use it?
"Everybody called me Gardner, it's only the media that used to call me Rudolf. Kaizer Motaung called me Gardner. Everybody called me Gardner. My teammates called me Gardner, and sometimes they'd twist it to Gardnero. There has never been a mistake."
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If you could relive it, what would you want your nickname to be?
"I can't answer that because growing up, the nickname had to relate to the way you played [laughs]. Because I used to kick opponents, somebody would call me 'Yster' - imagine being called Yster. If I was a dribbler, somebody would have called me 'Ace'. It relayed to how you played.