Ntshumayelo on players overspending money to show-off

The Swallows FC midfielder Thandani Ntshumayelo has spoken about how South African players spend money recklessly despite not earning much. Ntshumayelo says local players are failing to manage their finances the way they should.

Ntshumayelo who emerged from SuperSport United academy before he joined Orlando Pirates was banned from football for four years in 2016 after testing positive for a class A drug.

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Ntshumayelo was given a second chance by Baroka FC when his ban was lifted and later joined Swallows. He believes that players are overspending because of the pressures they have in life.

“I think something like a mental coach is needed in South African football because footballers are living with so many pressures,” Ntshumayelo told iDiskiTimes’ Lethabo Kganyago in an interview.

“If you check on Instagram, some live totally different lives which don’t match their salaries, driving big cars,” the former Orlando Pirates star continued.

“Like how we give our money, we footballers have access to our money at any time, you can spend R20k a day and no one will tell you anything.

“So I think young and upcoming stars should be trained and warned about such things from an early age.

“It is very rare to find a South African player playing regularly at the top level in every game because there is a lot of things that go on in the mind of a soccer player, a lot.
“They are scared to talk about them.”

Today it’s all about celebrity status – Jerry Sikhosana

The former Pirates player Jerry Sikhosana also once spoke about “celebrity status” destroying the game because players rush to live a fancy life.

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“Today it all about celebrity status on these players, gets into stadiums with headphones and there’s no longer passion for the game, I’m not criticising but I’m saying the truth,” Sikhosana said as per Soccer Laduma.

“I think games being more televised, players nowadays stressed about being like international big stars like Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and the rest. They no longer want to create their own names, hence you find PSL players having nicknames of European stars because they are no longer proud of their own.

“We forget about our own culture and they struggle to even crack it in Europe because they don’t bring anything fresh, nothing new they bring, most of these guys want to emulate Europeans forgetting about their reality,” the former Buccaneers striker ended.