In this edition of Secret Footballer, a former Free State Stars striker reveals how the management selected a starting line-up for coach Kinnah Phiri.
Our Secret Footballer shares a story of how the late Stars chairman Bra Mike Mokoena saved him from the Malawian coach who wanted to finish with him.
READ | PSL coach: I was asked to throw a match
"The reason I ended up leaving Free State Stars is because Kinnah Phiri didn't want to play me," The secret footballer tells KickOff.
"From the first day he joined the club he never liked me. I remember him entering the dressing to introduce himself to the players; the first words he said, pointing at me, were, who is this one looking like this now?
"They told him who I was, and to everyone's shock, he responded by saying, No, no, no, we don't have a striker like this with no scar with nothing...and you call him a striker?
"From that day, just like that, I never saw game time again. I think his purpose was to bring his striker Jimmy Zakazaka, who, like him, was also from Malawi.
"He sidelined me up until club owner Mike Mokoena started doing the line-up by forcing him to play me.
"After that, we started winning again, and Kinnah Phiri started hating me even more. He was now told not to put me on the bench again.
"I was the only player in the club he was not coaching, he'd give instructions to my teammates but ignore me.
READ | Secret Footballer: Contracts get cancelled because of muti
"I ended up leaving for another PSL club, that was after I made a transfer request. I told the management I could not work with someone I didn't have a good relationship with.
"Phiti told the management there was a better striker he knew who could do a better job than me. He then signed his countryman Jimmy Zakazaka.
"I think, like many coaches, I believe he was influenced by agents to play who and not play that one."