In our latest feature of My First Pay Cheque, KickOff speaks to journeyman striker Eleazar Rodgers as he reveals details of his first pay cheque.
Who you signed for?
"Avendale Athletico FC in the first division. That's when I started to earn money for the first time. I was 19 years old."
How much was it?
"R1 000. That was the first income I got. I was so young I didn't even have an idea what was happening there at the time. I used to travel to Wynberg by train late at night".
How I celebrated?
"That's the problem, it was never my money it was my mother's money [laughs]. It went straight there.
"I remember even when I asked her to buy me a phone she said she can't because we needed the money for other things. But then I took my card out of her cupboard and bought it. In other words, I had to steal my own money to get a phone."
What I bought with it?
"A Nokia 3310. I enjoyed that phone though even though it had no camera. Back then it was cool. It was the best thing, we used to compose music from one phone to another with numbers. And we used to play snake and space on it."
Did your salary last the entire month?
"Like I said I gave it to my mother and almost all of it went to what we needed at the time. I never saw the money actually; my mother would give me the money I needed to travel to training or maybe find someone to fetch me at training and stuff like that. And that time things were a lot cheaper also. You could travel far with an R20 [laughs].
"I did have a girlfriend but at that time your parents didn't know you were dating that time. So, it was not like we were going out. You had to see them at school. And to be honest I wasn't really outgoing and at the time I used to be very judgemental towards people who would go out clubbing and drinking.
"But I do wish I started earlier; I could have done more."
