WeeklySA_AdminA MUST READ: Former Sundowns dynamo Mike ”Nanana” Ntombela pens book in his quest to encourage upcoming players to be prudent with their huge earnings
By Ali Mphaki
As a player, he was a pleasure to watch. Short of built, of crisp passes, he stroked the ball with a deft touch akin to an artist with his/her paint brush drawing a masterpiece.
A gentleman both on and off the pitch, Mike “Nanana” Ntombela was indeed an exceptional midfield player. The Senaoane, Soweto, born Ntombela, has now swopped his soccer boots for writing – even though he is not completely lost to football. Just as he could notice openings and spray those defence splitting passes, Ntombela has seen a gap which needs to be addressed within our soccer fraternity hence his new book: After the Fans Have Stopped Cheering – Moving From The Pitch To A Balanced Life.
As a writer, Ntombela is equally gentle with his prose. He teaches, without being pedagogical. At times you’d think he tends to preach, but without being evangelical. But what will be clear to the reader is that professional athletes, footballers in this instance, need to be prudent with their earnings.
The maxim that football is a short career can never be overemphasized. You may wonder what prompted Ntombela to put his ideas on paper. His explanation is poignant. “I was touched with the news that my former colleague at Sundows Phil “Chippa” Masinga died ‘penniless” and that he didn’t even have a medical aid.
“How could this be possible when Chippa was a superstar who even plied his trade abroad? “It really hit me and I decided to put my thoughts on paper so as to try and address the current crop of players not to commit the same mistakes we the older generation made. “You can’t learn from your own life, but from experiences of others,’ says
Ntombela. One of the major challenges and common mistakes afflicting soccer players, he says, is the failure not to combine sports with education.
And while you play, make sure you also invest in your education. The former Sundowns player says current players need to desist from leading an impressionable lifestyle and try to lead a balanced life.
“Buy what you want and not want you need,” he says, The trick is not to struggle but at the same time not to be extravagant, he adds. When he is not writing, Ntombela spends most of his time in his Senaoane kasie where he is chairman of the Gunners, a team that groomed him from his early days.
The team has several soccer divisions, from the Under 9s up to Under 20s which is competing in the Motsepe League, and two netball teams. As a way of showing his modesty, each time he comes to the township the former superstar drives in a 2001 Golf, even though at home in one of Jozi’s suburbs there is a monster Land Rover parked in the garage.
Writing a book is no easy task as it took Ntombela almost three years to complete his selfpublished masterpiece. Former chief sub-editor at Sowetan Sy Makaringe assisted in copy editing.
The book is available, however, at three stores in Gauteng, the bookshop at Maponya mall, also at Park Station Lifestyle Bookship and another at the Westgate Mall.
It retails at R250 a copy. And while you still to get a copy of After The Fans Have Stopped Cheering, this is not the last of Ntombela’s books as he is busy putting finishing touches to a book about his mom Elizabeth who will be celebrating her 90th birthday next year.
“I just pray she lives to see it in print,” he said.
