Ntshangase turns herd-boy during lockdown
Maritzburg United’s midfield star Phumlani Ntshangase now spends most of his time chasing after cows, goats, and chickens instead of a ball as he spends lockdown with his family in rural KwaZulu-Natal.
Phumlani Ntshangase Pic: Gerhard Duraan/BackpagePix
The 25-year-old former Bidvest Wits player told the club’s website that he takes pride in doing his village boy duties as they await the reopening of active football participation.
“We obviously have been given a program that we must do every day to keep our bodies active and fit. That I do from Monday to Saturday. (But) I also take care of cows, goats, and chickens. Every morning we take them out to pasture,” said Ntshangase.
Ntshangase said he is keeping in constant contact with teammates as they help each other through this tough time that no one could have ever anticipated.
“We communicate about how everything is going and discuss the training program during this lockdown because we have never experienced something like this before, where you have to stay at home and cannot be close to or touch anybody,” he explained.
He also said he had thought of life without football as he knows he will have to quit the game at some point.
“We always think about this… especially us as footballers, because we look at how lucky we are to live this kind of lifestyle at this age. School for me is one of the most important things in the world because it gives you a lot of opportunities to do a lot of things. So I would have tried maybe something regarding business; most people like to do businesses because that’s where the money is.
“It might be property, construction, or even trading especially now that we going through lockdown, your mind gets to think a lot about what you would have done if you were not playing football.”
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