Retired Chilean midfielder Jorge 'Kike' Acuna has made startling revelations on how his then representative swindled him out of millions of rands during a two-year spell at Mamelodi Sundowns.
Acuna arrived at Sundowns from Chilean club Universidad de Chile in July 2007 and lifted the SAA Supa8 and Nedbank Cup in his debut season while making 33 appearances in all competitions.
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The following season (2008/09) Acuna's game-time dropped to 26 appearances with a solitary goal, but the Chilean made appearances in both the CAF Champions League and Confederation Cup before returning home to Club Deportivo Nublense.
Despite all the accolades under Gordon Igesund, Trott Moloto, Henri Michel, and Ted Dumitru, Acuna claims he was suffering financially due to the actions of an unscrupulous representative.
"I did very well the first year, they even gave me a prize," Acuna exclusively reveals to KickOff in an exclusive from Santiago, Chile where he is now the head coach of Chilean fourth-tier league club Santiago City.
"I was very satisfied with my performances and that of the team.
"We came out champions (SAA Supa8 and Nedbank Cup) and I was the first Chilean to achieve it so that made me very proud.
"Then during the second year I started having problems with my representative at the time, the club paid him my salary and he didn't pay me.
"In the second year at Sundowns, he stopped paying me at times.
"He paid me one month and another not.
"So, I couldn't be focused on soccer.
"The guy really messed up with me.
"So, I lost concentration for a large part of the year, and it was a shame because I really would have liked to be there for many years.
"It still affects me today because it's my money that I earned with a lot of effort and an idiot took my money.
"I still think about that up to today.
"I don't know how there are people capable of messing on another person like that.
"That money would be very useful today for me and my family," explains Acuna.
The Chilean also disclosed the amount that he has lost out on to an English agent whose whereabouts are unknown.
"It was a lot of money.
"USD 150 000 (approx. R2,7 million at today's rate)," reveals Acuna in making the claim.
Prior to arriving in South Africa, Acuna had another issue with the same agent who messed up a deal at English club Blackburn Rovers in 2006.
"Yes, I was at Blackburn Rovers.
"I had everything ready, but my agent cheated me, and I couldn't continue in the club before he cheated on me again in South Africa by keeping my money.
"It was only after a long time that I found out that he had cheated on me in England.
"He tricked me into not going to the team's presentation game and asked for more money for himself threatening that they didn't pay him then I wouldn't play.
"I found out about all this a long time later.
"I wanted to sue him, but I didn't know how to do it.
"Later I found out that he was prohibited from entering Chile.
"He told me that if the club paid him then it would be easier for him that way.
"I trusted people.
"I'm not evil therefore I expect the same from the rest of the people.
"I really don't know where he is now because before I returned from South Africa, I never heard from him again," says Acuna, who is now 44.
Just how did a Chilean who had played for Feyenoord in Holland and earned 16 national team caps end up in South Africa in the first place?
"I was earning well with Universidad de Chile club, a big team here and my representative told me that we could go to South Africa, and I didn't think about it, I wanted to go play there because this was a team that always wanted to be champions.
"I wanted to get to know the country and the culture.
"I don't regret it.
"It was a great decision.
I had an incredible time plus they treated me very well at the club.
"I met many colleagues who were very good people like Mike Manzini and Dillon Sheppard.
"The truth is that I would like to return with my wife," he says.
Though Acuna is in charge of a fourth-tier league club, they will play the country's most successful and supported club Colo-Colo in the Copa Chile (the equivalent of the Nedbank Cup) next week.
"I'm leading a small team in Chile.
"I want to grow little by little as a coach and would one day like to be in charge of Sundowns" he notes.
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