What chance Mbulelo Mabizela taking a leaf out of Lehlohonolo Majoro’s book and apologising for his sending off at the weekend?
Zilch, if you ask me.
It’s been over two days since OJ received his marching orders for elbowing an opponent during AmaZulu’s Absa Premiership clash with Bloemfontein Celtic and we’re yet to hear any kind of remorse being shown by the Usuthu defender.
Don’t hold your breath for it.
Granted, people grow up and change. And for years local football has hoped for an improvement for the better in the behaviour of the player formerly known as Mbulelo Oldjohn.
After all he is arguably one of the most talented players this country has ever seen and our football would be all the richer for him getting his head screwed on right.
Yet despite continuously being given second chances by many a club and coaches, the lad from Maritzburg just doesn’t seem to want to learn.
And it was his lack of discipline that saw him waste a glorious opportunity of making it big in the world’s most popular league – the English Premiership. Who would forget that memorable debut OJ made for Tottenham Hotspur – his thunderbolt strike from outside the box against Leicester City is still one of the best goals scored in that league.
I can never forget how excited we were for him, so much so that I was on the first flight out to London two days later to go see him.
My elation at being at the Spurs training ground and seeing OJ being the centre of attraction knew no bounds. Here was my fellow countryman getting all the attention from not only the media hounds but youngsters begging for his autograph. That there were the likes of Jamie Redknapp and Robbie Keane around did not seem to matter, it was OJ everyone wanted a piece of.
And so did I. And being South African, I thought I had some advantage. I thought OJ would want to talk to me more than everyone else. Boy was I wrong. I didn’t get the interview I’d flown thousands of miles for – the man of the moment telling me to “call me later, I have to go now” and then not answering his phone when I called.
I did not relent and went to a Spurs match in midweek where he played his second game as a sub. Still, even after that match OJ was ‘untouchable’ telling me “I gotta go, (Helder) Postiga (his Portuguese teammate) is leaving me”.
He seemingly never really did have time for others but himself has OJ. It seems he hasn’t changed. A pity it is all to the detriment of his immense God-given talent. - The Star