Former Sundowns midfielder reflects on bad decisions that left him broke

Mbele is currently employed by Sedtrade, a company constructing a tar road in Heilbron.

The 38-year-old admits it was hard to adapt to life after he fell out of grace and was without a team or regular income.

“The money was no longer coming in, I had to hustle to survive. It was a hard transition and people were talking badly behind my back. But I had to prepare myself mentally for the downhill, so I could be able to deal with everything,” Mbele told Sunday World.

“In football you must accept it when your career is done, but life must go on. Football is similar to any work situation because you can be retrenched at any time. When it’s done, it’s done.”

The former Bafana Bafana player says a week after he left Sundows Patrice Motsepe bought the club.

“When my contract was left with six months at the beginning of 2002, I called my boss Nastasia and asked her if she was going to renew my contract or not. She advised me to chill, as she was in Greece for two months and said we would finalise everything when she came back.

“I did not have an agent and I just made a rush decision of joining Swallows. After a week, Motsepe bought Sundowns and my ex-teammates told me he doubled their salaries. I still gave it my best and won Player of the Year [award] on my arrival at Swallows. My career later died because of bad decision-making, pride and arrogance when I was at the peak of my career. Things were never the same after I left Sundowns.”