Lucas Thwala, once a revered and highly rated left-back for Orlando Pirates, has come out to debunk the notion that he and his Bafana Bafana teammates made a fortune from the 2010 Fifa World Cup.
Thwala earned his first national colours in the watered-down Bafana Bafana team that competes in the Cosafa cup – a tournament usually used as an experiment to assess fringe players.
“My first call-up was in the Cosafa Cup, we went to Mauritius. I got Man of the Match in the first game, I did not fool around, I was working. We played in the rain and mud. Steve Komphela was the coach,” Thwala told the Ntsimbi Makwakwa podcast.
It did not take too long for Thwala to graduate to the regular Bafana team where he was named in South Africa’s 23-man squad for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. Players like Bryce Moon, Daine Klate, Benni McCarthy and Innocent Mdledle are some of those who could not make the grade.
“The camp was great but it was tense especially because everyone knew what was expected of him. The World Cup needed everyone to be mentally and physically fit. It was sad when the team had to be cut to 23,” said Thwala.
“Even the coach (Carlos Alberto Parreira) said that if it were up to him, he would have kept the whole 30-man squad. The selected squad was fair because the coaches had enough time to access each and every player and it was also performance based.
“I can’t express the feeling, but it means a lot. It is something you just think about and reminisce about where you’ve come from and wonder how you got to the World Cup.
“It’s a pity because even though you are in the World Cup, you overlook the magnitude of the situation… it is only the people around you who see how big the situation is,” he added.
One big misconception about the 2010 Fifa World Cup is that players left the tournament with their pockets overflowing with bank notes.
This might have been the case for players of other federations – but for Bafana, the South Africa Football Association were not too generous with remuneration.
“I don’t want to lie… they gave us change. According to other national teams – even though they may have been lying to us – were given an appearance of R500 000. But with us… dololo – zero cent.
“We never received that appearance fee. The only money we promised was that if we qualified for the knockout stages we were going to get those millions and Mercedes Benz.
“The only money I got at the World Cup was goal bonuses and the money for being in the camp. I heard people say these players made a lot of money in the World Cup.
“The money we got was around R200 000 before tax. After tax, it was around R100 000. They can arrest me or shot me, but that is the honest truth.
