In this edition of My First Pay Cheque, KickOff catches up with former Bush Bucks star Mongezi Malashe.
The highly rated Malashe reveals how he finished his first-ever paycheque within two days.
Who did you sign for?
"Bush Bucks are the first team to pay me money for playing football. That was in 1991. I was so excited."
How much was it?
"It was R500. Those days they used to pay us in envelopes.
"I could spot my envelope from a distance sitting there on the boss's table. It was the thinnest while my teammate's envelopes look fatter compared to mine."
How did you celebrate?
"You know our story. We bought Coca-Cola, full chicken and whatever.
"Remember before that I had never received any money for playing football. I used to play for a sheep, so R500 was a lot of money for me."
What did you buy with it?
"All my nice trousers I bought them with that football money. I started dressing nicely with football money.
"Even at school I started wearing a nice uniform, I was no longer wearing like some poor kid. You could tell I was getting paid."
Did it last you the full month?
"(laughing) It only lasted two days. I bought groceries. We bought eggs and whatever in large quantities but still starved.
"I'd go back home and ask family members to loan me some small money.
"We would ask for money from people we know, like friends, we didn't care about status. We were starving. We didn't care if we were famous and appeared on television.
"I remember there was a friend of ours his name was Oliver. He was a taxi driver and he used to buy us a Coca-Cola.
"People would braai meat for me if I had a good game. Those were the types of things that made our generation happy. We played football because of passion."