Ex-Orlando Pirates star Naughty Mokoena has tried to explain the reason why footballers in the country struggle financially after retirement.
Mokoena completely understands all about going broke after retiring but did well to get back on track after launching the Naughty Mokoena Foundation back in December.
Using his own personal experience, he tries to explain what players must avoid after retirement.
“After I retired, it was tough. But I never gave up and that’s why I am here today. If you don’t have people who will guide you, we will keep seeing players going broke once they have retired. Because there’s no one who helps you with finances. It’s best to find someone who can help with finances, even at the bank, but the problem is that we run after material things and we chase after the wrong things. You go to parties every week and we don’t choose our friends properly, because you don’t know who loves you and does not love you. There’s one or two who want to see you broke,” Mokoena said in an interview.
“There are current players I want to help and I try to show them some very important things, for free. I am not charging anything. It’s better to be advised by someone who has been there, rather than someone who maybe went to get a degree. That person does not know the pain of being broke. I know that pain and I don’t want others to go through that pain. It’s much easier because I make an example using myself. Some are interested to listen, but some have that thing of being big-headed like ‘what can you tell me?’ I always say be a good listener and you can achieve a lot of things.”
Mokoena further explained why it’s important not only to focus on nurturing the football talent of young players.
“If you take someone and only groom him to be a footballer, he does not know what will happen with his life once he is done playing. Even if you groom them to be footballers, you also have to teach them the importance of educations, so that he knows what he can do once his playing days are over. You can’t have someone who retires and then you find them sitting on the streets. We’ve been there and done all those things and we have also seen with some ex-players, including me, how difficult life can be after football. There’s so many mistakes I made in my life and it’s something I don’t want to see happening to players of the future, so it’s better show them the way when it’s still early, before they get to the limelight because that’s what kills them, the limelight.” In his active years as a player, Mokoena also starred for AmaZulu and Moroka Swallows