That familiar, full, beguiling grin that has won friends across the world, which flashes across Lucas Radebe’s face when he looks back at his illustrious career, has little to do with what he achieved on the pitch.
The former Leeds United skipper is delighted more by a feat that came long after he had hung up his boots, an achievement that finally saw him please a particularly important person in his life.
“My mother always wanted me to be a doctor,” Radebe explains during a ceremony in his honour as one of the 50 Icons of Soweto at Sakhumzi Restaurant in Orlando East. “And while she was happy for me, given all the soccer achievements, she always felt I should have studied to become a doctor.”
And a doctor Radebe did become, albeit not the medical kind his dearly departed mother Emily wanted him to be.
“A few years after my retirement I was invited to the University of Leeds and they honoured me with a doctorate. So I got to be a doctor and my mom was very happy. In the end she got what she wanted and I am glad it happened while she was still alive. It was absolutely amazing to see her being proud of me.”
Radebe’s mom, you see, never really wanted her son to be a soccer player. And even when “Rhoo” became a big international star, she was still not convinced.
That he got to play professionally was because his older brother, who “was a much better player than me”, went truant on the day he was supposed to trek from Diepkloof in Soweto to Lehurutsi in North West, then Bophuthatswana.
“When the people came to fetch my brother, who was meant to go to a school in Lehurutsi, came to our house, he was nowhere to be found. My mother said they should just take me because she also wanted me away from Soweto where riots were rife and comrades were pushing the ‘pass one, pass all’ policy at our school, Bopasenatla [Secondary School].”
While in Lehurutsi, studying at Ngotwane High School, Radebe began playing football without his mom’s knowledge. But she found out when “I got kicked in the face and she was so angry she wanted me to come back home to Diepkloof”.
Yet such was his talent Radebe could not be stopped. Rhoo joined Kaizer Chiefs after completing his matric. Of course his mom would rather he had gone to medical school.
The beautiful game triumphed though, and Radebe grew to become not only an Amakhosi star but got to play for Bafana Bafana too. European scouts soon came calling. Radebe and South Africa teammate, Mamelodi Sundowns star Phil “Chippa” Masinga, were signed by Leeds United in July 2005 — the pair also helped Bafana win the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations on home soil — but mom remained unimpressed.
I helped to enlarge the [family] house so all 10 of us could fit in, but my mom still did not seem to realise being a footballer was a good thing.
— Lucas Radebe
“Even when I went to Leeds, she didn’t really approve. I had the privilege of taking them [mom and dad] over to England, but even then she was not convinced. She wanted me to be a doctor.”
The attitude of Radebe’s mom was not unique though. “You’ll remember it was common in black families then for parents to want their kids to either become a nurse, a teacher, a lawyer or a doctor. Those were the careers of choice back then. Football and sport in general was seen as nothing more than a pastime.”
Not even when he could support his parents and siblings from his football earnings could Radebe stop his mother from pestering him about being a doctor.
“I helped to enlarge the [family] house so all 10 of us could fit in, but my mom still did not seem to realise being a footballer was a good thing,” he chuckled. “I played for 12 years at Leeds, and even after retirement my mother was not happy. She still asked, ‘When are you going to be a doctor?’”
While pleased he lived up to her expectations, Radebe was a bit pained that she was not around to witness the latest accolade earned due to his football prowess.
“I wish my parents were still alive to see this,” he said as he accepted the 50 Soweto Icons frame from Sakhumzi Maqubela, owner of the famous Soweto restaurant.
“Sakhumzi has answered my dream. He has given me the opportunity to return home and plough back and acknowledge and thank the people who supported me through and through.”
He described his being mentioned in the same breath as Soweto luminaries such as actor Sello Maake KaNcube, musician Yvonne Chaka Chaka and businessman Ndaba Ntsele as a huge feather in his cap.
“It is an honour for me to be part of the Soweto Icons because to be called an icon is a big deal. It means you must have done or changed something. I am deeply humbled by this recognition, I never thought I’d get this.
“I have collected a lot of awards but away from here [Soweto]. Now, coming back and being recognised at the place where I grew up in front of everyone is amazing. Going back to my old school was great because I always say, ‘Don’t forget where you come from.’”
He was not receiving the medical degree his mother so wanted him to attain, but you can bet Emily Radebe flashed a smile of contentment from up high at the sight of her son being honoured in his own township.
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