TBT: Lebogang Mothibantwa
In this week’s instalment of Throwback Thursday, former Orlando Pirates and Bloemfontein Celtic midfielder Lebogang Mothibantwa about a training session in Bethlem that forced one player to retire after a confrontation with the coach.
Lebogang Mothibantwa (Photo by Lefty Shivambu / Gallo Images)
Mothibantwa was playing at Celtic at the time under the mentorship of coach Paul Dolezar. The player in question, Vasili Sofiadellis, quit after a tackle from defender Gary Goldstone.
However, the tackle was not what had the soldiers from the Tempe Military base in Bloemfontein and Celtic payers watching the training laughing their lungs out as the medical staff attended to Sofiadellis’ injuries.
Mothibantwa told Phakaaathi: “We were training at Celtic, we had a player called Vasili Sofiadellis who had been with the team before I joined.
“We were playing a game 11 versus 11 in the afternoon session. Dolezar would speak to us through a loudspeaker while training us. On that day, Vasili wanted to impress the coach, so he broke through the wing and went forward.
“As he was moving forward then our centreback Gary Goldstone was the roadblock, he gave him an elbow in the face. I just heard Dolezar say ‘sh*t’ after the challenge. Dolezar went on the field while Vasili was on the group getting medical attention and put the loudspeaker in Vasili’s face and asked ‘why does the Greek man make football so difficult?’.
“Vasili got up to attack Dolezar but the coach ran and asked Goldstone to protect him from Vasili screaming ‘Gary the Greek man wants to kill me’. That is the last time I saw Vasili he retired after that and took off his jersey.”
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