Former Mamelodi Sundowns talisman Emiliano Tade is retiring from professional football after parting ways with the Brazilians.
Tade took the Absa Premiership by storm last season during his time with AmaZulu.
It is his consistent displays and goalscoring prowess that attracted the interest of Sundowns.
The Argentina-born striker only lasted six months at Usuthu before Sundowns lured him in to their set-up at the start of the year.
In an exclusive interview with Independent Media before he jetted out of the country yesterday, Tade confirmed that he is retiring from professional football.
“I’m retiring from professional football but I still want to play. I will play amateur football because I want to work outside of football and professional football doesn’t give you that.
“I’ve studied. I did sustainability and life coaching. I want to focus on that now. I want to focus on life after football,” Tade explained.
His sudden departure astonished the masses in the football fraternity.
“There’s nothing bad. There’s nothing wrong that led to my departure. That’s the most important thing that I need to emphasise.
“My decision was from a combination of things. Playing for a big team like Sundowns as a foreigner, I needed to play regularly but unfortunately I was injured for long period of time. That has not happened for me in my career. I felt like I was failing the club. I felt like I was failing to deliver. Every time I came back I got injured,” he added.
Tade will now go back to New Zealand where he was playing and based before heading to South Africa to join AmaZulu.
“Injuries made it harder for me. That was my obstacle. I pushed and pushed, but I got injured. That got to my mind. At a big club, you need to believe. I wasn’t believing. That is not the feeling that I want,” Tade elaborated.
Tade was competing against the likes of Lebogang Maboe, Sibusiso Vilakazi and Mauricio Affonso for the starting berth.
“I didn’t run away from the competition. Competition is good in life especially with good players. Unfortunately I couldn’t compete because of injuries,” Tade said.
Asked if he would consider coming back to Mzansi in the future, he replied: “I don’t think so, I’m now 32 years old. I will really miss South Africa. I will miss the languages, diversity and the energy. I will miss the coaches. I want to thank the coaches at Sundowns. They made me to feel appreciated. I went to the coach’s house and explained my situation. He understood and supported me. Obviously he tried to convince me to stay, but I had already made up my mind,” Tade stated.
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