May feeling the cold

Farouk Khan, a long-time mentor of May Mahlangu, said yesterday the midfielder had shamed the Stars of Africa football academy that took him in when he was only 15 by refusing to honour a Bafana Bafana call-up this week.

Khan is the technical director at the academy, and looked after, as well as guided, Mahlangu in his career until two years ago. On Tuesday, national team coach Ephraim "Shakes" Mashaba revealed he had received an e-mail from the IFK Goteborg player asking to be excused from the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Sudan and Nigeria - citing "fatigue".

This angered the SA Football Association so much that the organisation moved quickly to ban him from future Bafana matches. Khan yesterday backed Safa, saying the player made the decision "without proper consultation".

"May has forgotten his roots, something we believe we taught all our players at the academy," Khan explained. "This is a player with immense potential and a big future, but has caused us heartache because of the decisions he has taken.

"I was never his agent, but more of a father when I took him from nothing as a 15-year-old and helped mould his career until he joined Rob Moore's stable two years ago. I am not attacking Rob, but I think he needs to take responsibility for May's future as his manager.

"This decision, which indicates that May is unpatriotic, has shamed and saddened us."

The former Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns assistant coach argued that the Safa ban would hurt Mahlangu's chances of furthering his career abroad. Khan also labelled the player's reasoning - that he needed to rest - as a poor excuse for abandoning his country.

"He has cut off his nose to spite his face. Top clubs will judge him by his number of caps for the national team. How can a player say he is tired when he has to play for his national team? That's a rubbish excuse."

While there has been a public outcry over Mahlangu's withdrawal and subsequent ban, former international Shoes Moshoeu, who, like Mahlangu, was based in Europe during his playing days, said the fiasco could have been handled better if player and coach had discussed a win-win scenario.

"Look, we don't know the full story, but as a player you don't ignore a national team call-up," said Moshoeu.

"But in my opinion, players are their own doctors because they know how much their body can take. It is how you deal with it that becomes a talking point. Maybe the coach and the player could agree on how he can be used while he is with the team - perhaps be given 30 minutes on the pitch instead of 90."

Moshoeu said the Mahlangu debacle won't be the last a Bafana coach has to deal with.

Benni McCarthy, especially during Mashaba's first tenure as Bafana coach 11 years ago, aided by Safa's incompetence, was a ring leader in the stayaways.

This trend suddenly disappeared in the lead-up to the Confederations Cup and the World Cup, but Steven Pienaar's retirement from Bafana two years ago again raised the issue of players putting their own interests ahead of the national team's.

However, Moore defended Mahlangu's actions on soccer website Soccer Laduma, saying his player had informed Mashaba about his withdrawal last week.

"There are times when a player may have special circumstances that should be respected," Moore said. "May has never done anything in the past to suggest that he is unpatriotic. By having explained his position to Mashaba last week, May believed that he had done the right thing to give the coach enough time to name a replacement player."