In this edition of My Locker Room Secrets, former Kaizer Chiefs striker David Radebe reveals all the behind-the-scenes secrets in the various changing rooms throughout his career.
Whose locker room are we in today?
"As David Radebe at Kaizer Chiefs, I have achieved everything I wanted to achieve in football. I won the league twice, Coca-Cola Cup twice, MTN8 Cup and Absa Cup, even today I still have all my medals, and they are many."
Who was always late?
"Thabo Mooki. He always arrived five minutes before we started. While the rest of us would arrive even 40 minutes before training. It was in his nature. Couldn't ask him because I was not a senior player at Chiefs, senior players were the likes of Skhokho [Cyril Nzama], Patrick Mabedi and Thabo Mooki. "
Any interesting rituals before they played?
"This thing of kneeling and praying on the pitch or on the goal line is done by the foreigners mostly, especially the goalkeepers. Local guys do pray but not like foreigners, those guys are always carrying a bible. As the likes of Greg Etafia did at Swallows."
Who was the jokester?
"Skhokho and Arthur Zwane talked a lot. They would joke about everything. And what they did was a good thing because it kept the team together and spirits high. Skhokho even his goal celebrations kept us together."
Was it a muti change room?
"90% of the teams in the PSL do use muti."
Who was the singer?
"Arthur and Skhokho were always in front of everything in the team. 'Umshini wami' was our favourite song. It used to be Muhsin Ertugral's favourite song."
Who was the best dressed and worst dressed?
"Again, Thabo Mooki tjooo! He always dressed smartly. Not even a single day did he come to training wearing a Kaizer Chiefs tracksuit.
"As for the worst dressed [laughs] I don't know. All we focused on was Thabo Mooki. You would never find him dressed in Kaizer Chiefs stuff. You could swear he was going to school to teach children."
Who never showered?
"I don't remember very well but we did have people who never showered. They preferred to bathe at home. After the game, they would get into their cars and head straight to their homes. Unless when we played away."
Rate the coach's team talk...
"Ted Dumitru was a good man. Yes, he did have his lies, but he was good. Players would whisper among themselves saying 'manje sekayasi shayashaya ke manje', [laughs], Ted would tell us 'You can even kill a mosquito by sneezing', [laughs]. He would lie straight to your face.
"Then there was Ernst Middendorp. Me and him didn't see eye to eye. That guy didn't want me. I once arrived at training late and that didn't go down well with him. He didn't want a player to pass the ball with his back heel, and I loved doing that.
"Muhsin Ertugral is the one who brought me to Kaizer Chiefs, only to release me when he came back for his second stint. We were on good terms with him. When he brought us to Chiefs I and Kabamba Musasa and didn't perform well, when he left, we started scoring. He thought we did that on purpose. That didn't sit well with him.
"So, I'd say Ted Dumitru's team talks takes it."
