Mobara Reveals Details About Ill-Fated Folz Stint

AmaZulu defender Abbubaker Mobara has slammed former coach Romain Folz, saying the Frenchman was not a motivator but “lied” to the players and “manipulated them”.

Mobara spilled some beans of what the players went through under Folz, insisting Ayanda Dlamini, who replaced Folz as caretaker coach when the results were bad in April, was way better in being a motivator.

According to iDiski Times sources, Mobara was another player Folz wanted to get rid of in the January transfer window, along with Gabadinho Mhango, Keagan Buchanan, Ramahlwe Mphahlele and Lehlohonolo Majoro, with some of these players’ older than him.

While Mobara, who arrived from Cape Town City in January 2022 when Benni McCarthy was the coach, was kept, Majoro, Mphahlele and Buchanan were expelled from the camp, with Folz deeming them surplus to his requirements.

That was before their contracts expired at the end of June and the club made it clear at the time that they will not be renewed, though that was Folz’s decision.

Buchanan, Majoro and Mphahlele were all gone, but as soon as Folz was redeployed as the technical advisor, Dlamini brought them back, saying their experience was needed.

“In the space of four months, everything went further down, further down,” said Mobara to iDiski Times.

“We have players that have won leagues, won games, back-to-back leagues, and still want to achieve things. Take away what they have achieved, these people still want to achieve something, every season they play, whether it is individual, they work towards something.

“Someone outside comes in [Folz], he takes that away from us, puts something there in front and tells you ‘work towards this’.”

When asked if it was possible to work on what was put forward to them, Mobara said it was impossible.

“It was not possible,” Mobara frankly said.

“You can’t tell someone to do something when you have not told him what to do. You can’t tell the architect ‘I want to build the highest building’ and he comes and says ‘build it’ without showing you the structure, how are you going to build it? That’s what happened.

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“It was Folz. The best thing Ayanda [Dlamini] did when he became the coach, he just lifted the morale of the team. Folz was not a motivator.

“We started to fight one another because the coach was telling us lies, he manipulated us to believe in something that was not there. It’s like a scam, selling you something that is not visible.”

Mobara, having had enough of this, also revealed he approached Folz at the time.

“’It has been four months and the players are worried about themselves, not about playing, but they were complaining about their development, isn’t that a concern for you as a coach?’” Mobara said about what he told the French coach.

“I’m the centre-back but I was doing shooting drills, but nobody is pressuring me during the shooting drills so that he can sharpen me, it’s a give and take.

“Defenders, midfielders were shooting. I’m a defender and when I’m going to be in that position of scoring? The minute our strikers are not having a good shooting session, the defenders look good and aren’t that disrespectful towards strikers like Majoro, Augustine Kwem or whoever, because they need to tackle you and look better than your own position.

“So how do I manage to be a better player? By putting you under pressure so you are aware of being unsettled.

“We played Dondol Stars [in the Nedbank Cup Last-16, where the amateur side won 5-4 on penalties after the game ended 1-1 at FNB Stadium in March] and he shouted at Major, three minutes after the game started, no nothing. In his [Majoro’s] head, he was trained with no pressure and automatically feels there is no pressure [on the match day].”

This story first appeared in this week’s edition of the iDiski Times newspaper and you can grab your free copy at Shoprite stores in Gauteng or read it on our website every Friday.