Neymar to set the scene ablaze
JOBURG – Yeoville's Neymar is ready to set the Premier Soccer League football scene ablaze.
Seeing infants being tossed off balconies in crime and drug-ridden Yeoville may have been one of the most repulsive acts of all time but they are what helped keep Blessen Mavundla on the straight and narrow.
As one of the striking kingpins of the Nedbank Ke Yona Team, Mavundla has come a long way to make it to the top 18 of the squad of the Ke Yona team, which is set to do battle with Nedbank Cup two-time champions in a row, SuperSport United on 3 September at the Makhulong Stadium in Thembisa.
“There is nothing so inhumane in life like tossing infants from balconies. I grew up with this kind of practice in Yeoville. I have seen youths waste their lives with drugs and alcohol. I have seen them being transformed from decent and ambitious human beings, to drug junkies. I have seen it all and as horrific as it is, this helped keep me on the straight and narrow,” said Mavundla.
Read: New blood with new ideas needed in our football – Radebe
The Walkerville-born Mavundla, who turns 22 in October, and grew up and went to school in the suburb of Yeoville, is a teetotaller who has never tasted alcohol and does not smoke either. “All this is due to motivation from my mother. Maybe I would not be who I am were it not for her strict character and words of guidance.”
In an interview with the Alex News on the sidelines of a press conference of the Ke Yona team ahead of their epic clash with the first team in the 10-year history of the Nedbank Cup to successfully defend it, a confident Mavundla said he was looking forward to mesmerising the fans at Makhulong and even scoring a goal or two.
“I am certain that we’re going to go down in the history of the Ke Yona team as the first squad to beat a history-making team as well. I and my teammates are hungry for success and eager to make history,” said Mavundla, an aspiring business management student with a penchant for clothes and fashion.
Neymar, as he’s known in social football circles, which was his only association with the beautiful game, said he was looking forward to his stint with Free State Stars once the SuperSport game was history. All the 18-member Ke Yona squad have been paired with an Absa Premiership team. “I am hopeful of securing a contract at the end of my month-long trials with them,” he said.
Mavundla, a waiter-turned footballer at the Spur restaurant in Eastgate, passed his matric with flying colours in 2013 from Izenzo Kungemazwi Community College in the Joburg CBD. He was accepted in all the universities he had applied to but financial constraints spooked his dreams.
Read: Referee report awaited for football fracas
He then resorted to playing football as of 2014 for a Captain John Maluleke’s Inner City Ambassadors FC in the inner city and was their top goal scorer. This is the second time around for Neymar in the Ke Yona trials. Last year he was cut out in the last hurdle of 25 but this time made it to the final 18.
Mom’s boy as he is, Neymar’s dad passed away while he was young, leaving behind his mom, Alice and his younger sister and other siblings from his father’s side, all of whom live together in Walkerville while he stays with his uncle in Yeoville since school days.
