Benni McCarthy, the rose that grew from the concrete

15 May 2016 - 02:00 By BBK
subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now

A drug lord with a stash of cash is the only hope. Hordes of youngsters with no hope in hell of making it big in life gravitate towards him.

All is not good in this hood. For the teenagers, football is the only reprieve from running gang battles between gangsters fighting over territory.

Gunfire is the soundtrack of the neighbourhood. In the morning. At noon. At night. Welcome to Hanover Park which at the dawn of darkness becomes Handover Park. Don't ask me why.

This is the hood that is home to the gangster soccer league.

From Hanover Park hails arguably the most successful footballer from South Africa, Benedict Saul McCarthy, commonly known as Benni to us all.

This week, in twittershprere, McCarthy shared the news of success, him obtaining a Uefa A coaching licence.

As congratulatory messages flooded his timeline, McCarthy shared that Pro Licence was his next stop.

story_article_left1

Here is a man on a mission, driven by passion and scaling new heights. It doesn't mean if your background is more hellish than hell that you are condemned to a life of crime, slime and grime.

You can, like Benni has done and continues to do, rise like the proverbial phoenix and scale dizzy heights.

From Hanover Park McCarthy's magic feet took him to Seven Stars, Ajax Amsterdam, FC Porto, Celta Vigo, Blackburn Rovers, West Ham United and Orlando Pirates where he called time on his incredible 21-year football career.

You look at McCarthy's life and you see a sea of success informed by sheer grit to make it against all odds.

Instead of using his background as an excuse to fail, he made it an inspiration to succeed.

Tupac Shakur came out of the ghetto make something of himself out of nothing.

He penned a poem, The Rose That Grew From The Concrete:

Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?

Proving nature's law is wrong it

learned to walk with out having feet.

Funny it seems, but by keeping it's dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air.

Long live the rose that grew from concrete when no one else ever cared.

McCarthy's rap in the TKZee hit Shibobo comes nowhere near Tupac's rhyme and reason. But there is a similarity in their life stories, in how they rose to international stardom when their circumstances were conducive for them to be confined to gang warfare statistics.

We are talking here about a man who as a boy kicked the pigskin for a team whose coffers were fumelled by drug money.

story_article_right2

Thug life could have been a theme of his existence. There are many Benni McCarthy's (talented footballers) across the length and breadth and nooks and crannies of our beautiful land.

In Chesterville and Lamontville. In KwaMashu and KwaLanga.

They are troubled, tortured souls. If you know one of them, tell them about Benni McCarthy's story. Tell them to knuckle down and work hard. Remind them that there's not a single grave in this whole wide world with a tombstone with the epitaph: Here lies so and so who was killed by hard work.

Tell them never to give up on their dreams and keep their heads to the sky. Who knows, one day when coach Benni McCarthy is unveiled as coach of a prominent local club, that player could be one of the signings he makes.

And he can go on to be a great striker for club and country. And court as much controversy. Make as much money. Be a great father. And never, ever, ever, become a drug lord with a stash of cash.

Follow BBK on twitter @bbkunplugged99

subscribe Just R20 for the first month. Support independent journalism by subscribing to our digital news package.
Subscribe now