Legendary goalkeeper and mentor Brian Baloyi (https://twitter.com/Brianbaloyi) joined Motshidisi Mohono (https://twitter.com/MotshidisiM) and Jabu Mahlangu (https://twitter.com/JabuMahlangu12) to wax nostalgic about the good ol’ days on the field and also let us in on his current projects.
Currently, he’s flexing his philanthropic muscle as he is the ambassador of the Big Shoe Cup – a tournament in partnership with the Big Shoe Foundation and the Smile foundation. The purpose of the tournament is to awareness for the games as well as money for 11 children to receive corrective surgery for their cleft palates. The games that will be taking place on the 21st of July in celebration of Mandela Day and Mandela Month.
He’s passionate about giving back to communities, and especially his own township where he grew up.
“I’m so in love with my township, Alexander and so whenever I can get involved I will. We will be having a tournament with kids from Alex, Soweto and they will get a chance to play against children from the German school”.
His mother is the one that he credits for his love for community upliftment.
“Being raised by a single mom who is always involved in helping the community has shaped the person that I am. I am also trying to make the environment better for the coming generations”.
We took trip down memory lane in his career as well since he and Jabu are former teammates.
“When I was part of Kaiser Chiefs, Jabu was very fun to be around – it’s very seldom to find him in a bad mood.”
Despite his humble demeanour, he packs quite the impressive resume having played 24 games for the National Team, Bafana Bafana, and also have played for Kaiser Chiefs 338 times.
He recounts his first game in 199, at Ellis Park where Kaiser Chiefs played against Moroka Swallows, resulting in a 0-0 draw.
“I was about 19 years old… I turned professional at 17 – for two years, I was sitting on the bench.”
How does a 19-year-old teen with humble beginnings find himself on one of the most loved teams in the country, you ask?
“Shakes Kungwane joined Kaiser Chiefs before me and when he was on the reserve side, the goalkeeper that they had was not good and so he told the coach that I was a good goalkeeper.
“He told his coach ‘when I play against him, I don’t score’”, and thereafter he got his opportunity to play.
Spiderman, is also multi-talented and multi-layered with a strong entrepreneurial bone in him from a young age.
“I’ve always been an entrepreneur and I love music. And, CDs were just coming into style. So, I used to buy CDs, dub them onto cassette tapes and I’d sell them. I did this while also washing taxi drivers’ cars for money”.
Baloyi then brought it back to football and spoke about his World Cup experience in France and also what happened when the notion of going overseas, for good, came up. Listen here for more on that:
And, who does he think will walk away as the Champions for the 2018 FIFA World Cup? Watch below to find out:
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