Manyama Opens Up On Missed Chiefs Titles And Covid Saga

Former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Lebogang Manyama has opened up about his time at the club, missing out on titles and how good the club was to players especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Manyama retired from professional football following a persistent injury last month at the age of 32. The former Bafana Bafana international spoke to iDiski Times Editor Rob Delport in edition 111 of the newspaper where he spoke about of his best memories in Black and Gold. Manyama also shares that he felt welcome by everyone from the kitchen staff to the groundsmen and wanted to just show his appreciation with his performances.

“Yeah, I remember when Reeve [Frosler] scored the fluke goal. My time at Chiefs, like I said, was a dream come true. I just wanted to get into the team in order just to show my gratitude but yeh, Chiefs for me was a dream come true” Manyama told iDiski Times.

“From the first day, I got into Chiefs even the ladies, the ladies that clean at Chiefs, that tidy things up for us, at the canteens and stuff at the village, and they came to me when I got into the gate and they told me, ‘You are finally here, we’ve been waiting for you five years now!

“And I couldn’t really believe it, even these women knew what was happening. For five years it’s been at the back of their minds, so these are people that have been watching me over and over again, even though I didn’t play for the club. Already I felt at home with everybody. I made a lot of friends”

“I was friends with even the gardeners there at Chiefs, the security they will tell you, everyone, because I think from where I come from, I believe in treating everybody the same, more especially if we want to work together we have to treat each other with the same respect. No one is above anybody else. It’s only titles that will put that. But on the human side, I do it for that, that everybody deserves their respect, and they’ll tell you at Chiefs that I respected everybody, I gave my all”

In his time at Chiefs Manyama didn’t win any trophies. He says that even though there was criticism of him for that, he is proud to have been a part of a group that gave their fans some hope adding that he gave his best to try and end the drought at Naturena.

“And I’ll be honest with you, obviously, there’re people that will criticise me and say but I didn’t win a trophy and stuff. But today I stand here as a man, I will tell you that the closest that the club has gotten to winning a trophy, I was a big part of it. And you can go back and watch the CAF [Champions League], from where we started, all the games in the CAF up until I got injured, the Nedbank cup when we got into the final against TS Galaxy, and unfortunately lost”

“The Telkom, when we lost in the semis, the league when we lost on the last day. I mean that season was something else you know with [Samir] Nurkovic, [Leonardo] Castro and them. I did my utmost best to break the cup drought, but we just couldn’t get over the line. I don’t know why, but I’m grateful to the club so much. That’s why you’ve seen I’ve never really said anything about my time at Chiefs. Because obviously, now people start looking for the bad, I saw people talking in the media, the coaches responding, this and that, and I didn’t want to get involved in that much”

Manyama further reveals that Chiefs players were lucky to receive their full salaries during the pandemic. The former Cape Town City man admits it wasn’t always great at the club but there was more good than bad and that’s what he chooses to remember when reflecting on his time there.

“For one reason, the Chairman [Kaizer Motaung] and Sir Bobsteak [Bobby Motaung], we were lucky and blessed to be paid in full during the COVID. And for me, it’s those small things, we never had problems in COVID [time] with money, everything was paid on time. The club, for the full two years during that time, paid us. There were still CAF trips, the club was there for us. Because it was a big risk, it was difficult, those CAF trips at that time, with the COVID and stuff. And for me, it’s those small things, from the Chairman, from Bobby, that they committed to that, that made me have feelings like this towards Chiefs as an institution”

“There are a lot of things that happened that I felt weren’t right, and I could say or speak about them, but they don’t outweigh the good memories I had at Chiefs, and the friendships I made at Chiefs. I don’t think I would risk any of that because of talking about flaws. Whoever’s got flaws at Chiefs needs to stand up and be accountable for them and say, we need to do things differently. It’s as simple as that. But it’s not for me”

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“For me, when it comes to Chiefs, it’s all about being grateful for everything they’ve done for me. A huge respect for the Chairman and Mr. Bobsteak and all the coaches that I worked with at Chiefs. It was an unbelievable four years, and to have also played my last game for a team that I dreamed of playing for at a young age, is a huge honour for me, in a Soweto derby that we won. So for me a big thanks from me to them. I will forever be a Chiefs fan, no matter what and I hope they finally get to where they want to be”

You can read Manyama’s full interview in Edition 111 available on iDiski Times website.