Thulani Serero: putting Barcelona ahead of Botswana... and upsetting a lot of people

Going Dutch: Serero and Ajax Amsterdam boss Frank De Boer

Next Wednesday night Thulani Serero, a 23-year-old Sowetan with useful feet, is due to play at the Nou Camp for Ajax Amsterdam in their opening Champions League showdown against mighty Barcelona in front of a capacity crowd of 99,786 people.

Last Saturday, the man from Mapetla was due to play for South Africa against Botswana at the Moses Mabhida stadium in a 4-1 win (rendered meaningless when Ethiopia beat the Central African Republic 2-1 to finish top of CAF World Cup qualifying Group A).

Bafana Bafana head coach Gordon Igesund didn’t see it as a choice. Like any international manager he assumed Serero would be ready and able to play for both country and club after a R60,000 business class flight to King Shaka airport.

It is now common knowledge that Serero claimed he had “tight muscles” and could not play for his country 48 hours before kick-off. After establishing the 2011 PSL Player of the Year was fully fit, Igesund had him removed from the team hotel and a SAFA disciplinary hearing is likely to follow his report on the incident.

But that is only the tip of the Thulani iceberg. In a series of phone calls with various members of the squad, I can reveal:

1 Serero was reluctant to play for Bafana during AFCON in January, when he also claimed to be unfit despite a clean bill of health.

2 The youngster upset senior Bafana players by telling them on the team bus: “When South Africa needs to win, they call me”.

3 Serero refused to “warm down” in the swimming pool with the rest of the squad, telling the squad’s fitness coach: “I don’t do water”.

4 He told the Bafana medical team he was not fit to play but didn’t want to be publicly declared injured as it would have ruined his chances of playing at the Nou Camp.

5 Serero told journalists he was not in the starting line-up and was “tired of travelling for meaningless games in Africa”.

Igesund vehemently denied the last point, insisting: “I swear on my son’s life, Serero was IN my starting line-up. I told him that last Thursday. The rest of my team hadn’t even been picked by then.

“And even if he was on the bench, how do you think that sounds to people like Kagiso Dikgachoi, who is playing for Crystal Palace in the English Premier League, and Dean Furman who was struggled to get back in the Doncaster team since he came to play for us against Nigeria?

“Nobody is bigger than his country. I am the Bafana head coach Neal, I have to do what’s best for the nation. Serero’s behaviour was completely unacceptable. I was livid, I tell you.”

Though Serero has returned to the Netherlands without comment, the story rumbles on – with Igesund running the risk of huge criticism if the ousted South African plays a starring role for Ajax in the Champions League.

Igesund refuses to back down. His full explanation of events goes like this: “On Thursday I had already informed Thulani that he had been excellent at training, he’s performing well and I need him to take it to the next step. I know the kind of guy he is, and I wanted him to be ready to produce his best for South Africa for the first time.

“I said to him everyone in this country knows he plays in Holland and I asked him to show the people in this country what kind of a player he is. I told him, and this is the truth, that I was going to start him on Saturday and that I wanted him to start expressing himself.

“He trained on Thursday and he then went to my team doctor to tell him he’s got a tight muscle in his thigh/groin area. The doctor checked him out and said he is okay, no groin injury.

“The doctor had six or seven players in the team with tight muscles. He still trained and again he was the outstanding player, there was no problem with his movement.

“On Friday, our assistant coach Serame Letsoake came to me and he said Thulani had approached him to tell him he doesn’t want to play. I was quite shocked so I called Thulani, my doctor and Serame to a meeting in my room. I asked Thulani, ‘Are you injured’? He said, ‘I have a tight muscle and I’m scared I might injure myself’. So I said, ‘Thulani, you got to work with me here son. You know I want you in the team and now you say you don’t want to play’.

“The doctor was there and I asked him, ‘I want to know has Thulani got a slight injury?’ The doctor said he doesn’t have an injury and he’s got a tight muscle. When the doctor tells you that, he isn’t making it up. He’s a doctor for God’s sake.

“It turns out Thulani told the doctor that he doesn’t want to play because he’s got a big game in Holland next week. Of course I was annoyed - why did he even fly to Durban?

“Serero seems to have developed a big head, like he’s better than all the other players here. I had called the Ajax coach Frank de Boer and he said Serero needed game time.

 “I don’t know what went wrong. He flew business class that cost R60 000 to fly over here with the intention of not playing. The truth of the matter is that Thulani Serero turned his back on us because he wants to play in the Champions League. That is insulting in my opinion.

“I was very surprised.  There was no patriotism, I couldn’t take that, especially when I have a bunch of players who really want to pull on that Bafana jersey.”

Igesund had the player removed from the team hotel though he pointed out: “Serero was given the privilege of staying at the hotel next door and was offered meals and a lift to the airport.”

The story doesn’t end there. Igesund says: “I don’t like to make hasty decisions but Serero will have to face a disciplinary hearing after a write my report for SAFA. Do you really think I would have done all this without a good reason?

“I honestly believe I’ve done my job. I made the decision. I stand by it. I’ve done what’s right for the team and for the country. Some might say it harsh, but you’ve got to face up to your responsibility."

Like just about every other football journalist in South Africa, attempts to talk to Serero and the man who took him to Holland, Mike Ntombela, are proving fruitless.

My fear is this: If Thulani Serero produces a magical performance against Barcelona on the 18^th, or if he stars throughout the tournament in a group which also includes AC Milan and Celtic, then what?

It’s one thing to overlook foreign-based South Africans who don’t appear on our televisions very often. It’s another to have burned your bridges with a man who could become South Africa’s premier footballer over the next couple of months.

And we all know what happened with Everton’s Stevie Pienaar when he felt he wasn’t sufficiently valued by Bafana Bafana. Can we really afford to push a second world class footballer in to the international wilderness?

Igesund’s closing statement is telling: “In life, there are decisions to be made. Serero is 23 and playing for a very big club in Holland, and if he is talking about retirement then he has to make his choices in life. You live and die by the choices you make. If he wants to put his club first, like Stevie did, I will never victimise him in any way.”

I will make every effort to get Thulani Serero on BOLLOCKZ! my show on www.ballz.co.za this week, it airs every Thursday from 10am-noon. 

You can also follow me on www.twitter.com/nealcol for all the latest sports news… and read my “Neal & Pray” column every Tuesday inwww.thenewage.co.za. 

BOLLOCKZ! is backed by www.topodds.com - have a look at their site for my latest sports betting advice!

The Real Truth: Why Mourinho and Ronaldo will be leaving the Bernebeu

Real Madrid must surely begin the long farewell to coach Jose Mourinho and star man Cristiano Ronaldo – the world’s most expensive player – after their Champions League semi-final defeat against arch-rivals Barcelona.

The controversial couple can hardly stay at the Bernebeu after the saga of the infamous four frantic Clasicos wound to its inevitable conclusion at the Nou Camp on Tuesday night.

Even former Real owner Ramon Calderon accepts they have gone too far after the shenigans surrounding the four games between the two sides over the past fortnight. He told the BBC: “Talk like this is harmful for Real Madrid. Big clubs should not blame the referee for their mistakes or their defeats.

"We invested £400m in the last two years to be a very important and strong team so if you lose you cannot blame injuries, bad luck, referees or nothing. If you lose you have to congratulate the rival and that is all.

"What Mourinho did in terms of talking about UEFA and referees is not acceptable at all."

Just as he did at Chelsea and Inter Milan, the Special One has talked himself out of a job despite his surprise win in the Copa Del Rey against the old enemy a fortnight ago.

Quotes like these simply don’t make for a long-term retirement plan. Mourinho, who watched the second leg from his hotel room 400 yards down the road “for security reasons” fumed: “ It's clear that against Barcelona you have no chance.

"I don't know if it's the publicity of Unicef [the club's shirt sponsor], I don't know if it's because they are very nice, but they've got this power.

"I don't know if it's the friendship of [Spanish football federation president Angel Maria] Villar at Uefa, where he is vice-president."

And former Manchester United star Ronaldo wasn’t holding back after a relatively peaceful 1-1 second leg draw saw Barca progress to the final at Wembley on May 28 with a 3-1 aggregate win.

Real’s iconic top scorer, threatened by a Barca fan just after half-time on Tuesday night (see picture) said: "Next year they might as well give the cup directly to Barcelona."

"The team is sad, but we knew it was an uphill battle.

"The name of the match is Mission Impossible IV. Once again it was the referee that didn't allow us to dictate the outcome. We knew we could beat Barca, but the referee didn't let us.

"Higuain's goal was good. Pique pushed me and I landed on Mascherano. He didn't used to fall to the ground in England, but he's picked up the bad habit of doing it here like everyone else.

"Those who know about football know Barca are very well protected. But you just have to live with all these injustices.""

It’s not as if Mourinho and Ronaldo don’t have a point. Higuain’s goal looked valid from where I sat and would have put the semi-final in the balance at 2-1.

Instead, the Belgian referee, surely a Waloon, judged Ronaldo to have fouled the gymnastic Mascherano as he fell under Gerard Pique’s push.

Decision after decision went the way of the diving, rolling, play-acting Catalans.

But they remain the best club side in the world – largely thanks to that little man Lionel Messi – and they are unlikely to slip up in the La Liga title race or the Champions League final as refereeing errs on the side of caution and ballet dancing.

Mourinho and Ronaldo have to accept modern football is no longer a man’s game. The tiny Messi is well protected – he had a record 12 fouls given against him on Tuesday night – and the dull Spanish World Cup winning ploy of possession and mincing is now simply the way of the softly-softly footballing world.

Given the passionate hatred between Catalan and Castillian – the Barcelona v Madrid split is a matter of historic nationalism and civil war not simply ball games – how can Mourinho or Ronaldo soldier on? How can they go through such perceived injustice against next season?

With Calderon joining the critique levelled by Alfredo di Stefano, what price on Mourinho returning to Chelsea with Ronaldo for a few billion Roman Abramovich roubles? Ronaldo needs another big money move before he hits middle age and Mourinho's defensive tactics, though they bring results, fail to live up to Madridista expectations.

At least in England’s Premier League the odd diver is booked. And nationalism counts for nothing when Manchester United face the Blues, as we will find out on Sunday.

Cesc Fabregas: Arsenal's magnificent maestro... but for how long?

CESC FABREGAS you are magnificent. The way the 23-year-old tore Braga apart at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night was little short of Messi... or Maradona.

He scored two and made two in a near-record 6-0 win, thrilling the 59,000 crowd and millions around the world as the Champions League whirred back in to action this week.

But how gullible do you think Arsenal fans are, Francesc Fàbregas i Sole? After the game, sweat dripping from that talented brow, he said: “I have always felt I belong here. I am happy at Arsenal.”

Tell that to the shirt sellers in Barcelona, where the letters F-A-B are already in great demand at the Nou Camp souvenir shop.

Every Gooner knows what happens at the end of the season. The star goes home. Cesc, born in Villasar-de-Mar, watched his first game at the Nou Camp aged six months. He was barely out of nappies when the Barcelona Academy snapped him up.

Incredibly, like Nicolas Anelka and Mathieu Flamini, Emmanuel Frimpong and so many others, he was lured away on a cheap flight to London as a 16-year-old by the ever-persuasive Arsene Wenger in 2004. And Cesc appeared to love it.

For six years he has thrilled Gooners and made Catalunians envious. His talents have lifted north London and though Arsenal have gone trophy-less since he broke through to the first team, he is already a modern master, right up there with Charlie George, Dennis Bergkamp and Thierry Henry.

Wenger himself admitted after his stunning display against Braga: “You don’t get many players like him. He is one of the biggest in the game.”

But he knows as well as any of us that Fabregas, pictured “accidentally” in the stripey strip of Barca after Spain’s World Cup win on July 11, will be off to pastures Nou next summer.

Joan Laport and his not-so-well-off board might have snatched him last summer if they’d had the money. But they know his blood runs the blue-and-red of Barca rather than the red-and-white of Arsenal.

On May 5, when the transfer row was at its peak, he said: “When you see that things are going so well, I think I would like to go to Barcelona. Then if they want me or not is another thing. It’s what I want and what I would like.”

And then there was this from Barcelona’s sporting director, Txiki Begiristain on May 18: “It’s great news that he wants to come here and I think that one day Cesc will have to come to Barca.”

And on July 30, after new president Sandro Rossell had failed with a £30m bid, Barcelona’s World Cup winning centre-back Carles Puyol announced: “Cesc is having to stay at a club where he no longer wants to be for another year. I wonder how intelligent it is keeping a player who doesn’t want to be there.”

Says it all really. Having spent six weeks with Fabregas in South Africa, Puyol would know a little bit about how he thinks.

A long meeting with Wenger followed when Barca’s interest switched to David Villa and there was Cesc on Wednesday night insisting: “I am happy at Arsenal.”

The unbeaten Gunners travel to Sunderland on Saturday. Steve Bruce will have watched his performance on Wednesday and will have worked out a few tactics to cope with the Catalunian’s prodigious talents.

Let’s see, when the boots are flying, how the Arsenal captain copes at the Stadium of Light. And then let’s hear what he has to say.

The good, the mad and the Messi: Barca outgun Arsenal 4-1

WE are now able to confirm Lionel Messi is, as we have long suspected, the world’s greatest footballer. At 22 and barely 5ft 7in, he can happily claim that accolade 65 days before the World Cup kicks off in South Africa.

A quite stunning 21-minute hat-trick at the Nou Camp tonight – and a fourth goal in the dying minutes to make it 4-1 - simply beggared belief. Breathless, bemused, bewitched, we watched as he took Barcelona smoothly from doom to boom. The Champions League quarter-final second-leg against Arsenal belonged to one man, one little genius.

Arsenal's goalscorer Nicklas Bendtner admitted afterwards: "If you have to lose a game, you want to lose because the other team is playing you off the pitch. It's difficult to be behind at the Nou Camp. Messi is a phenomenal player."

A remarkably calm Arsene Wenger, facing the prospect of a sixth trophy-free season, said: "The difficulty with Messi is he’s not always in the game. But when he is, he’s unstoppable. He’s the only player who can change direction at such a pace. He is the best player in the world right now. What can you do?”

It’s hard to offer this summary of his goals for a sports journalist who named his dog Charlie George in 1972, but here it is:

THE GOOD: On 21 minutes, he crashed the equaliser into the top corner from the edge of the box with his right foot barely a minute after Arsenal had gone ahead.

THE MAD: After 37 minutes, he poached the ball in the box and chipped in with his right after a deft touch with his left to give the home side the lead.

THE MESSI: After 37 minutes, clear through, he produced the outrageous, slipping his boot under the ball to lob a flummoxed Almunia and lift the Nou Camp’s 90,000 to a mighty victory roar.

THE TERRIBLY MESSI: Just three minutes to go and Messi mesmerises the Arsenal defence, first Eboue, then Vermaelen, Almunia saves but is beaten on the rebound - through his legs.

And that really was the story of a grim night for Arsenal – it would be churlish to mention they were also plagued by another display of fussy refereeing from the whistle-happy Wolfgang Stark.

Again, like the 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium last week, it was a game to remember. Twenty minutes in, with the ref ruining it and Manuel Almunia making a sharp early save, Abou Diaby committed a foul on the halfway line.

For once, Stark waved play on, Samir Nasri made a nifty tackle, fed Abou Diaby... who found Theo Walcott just on-side. He broke clear but, inexplicably, decided to play in Nicklas Bendtner with only the goalkeeper to beat. Bendtner's first effort was blocked but the long leg of the floored Great Dane stretched out and bang, 1-0 to silence the whole of Catalunia.

That fiver on Arsenal to win 1-0 at 12-1 looked a good investment. Briefly. Incredible scenes in the Collins lounge and all over north London (and a small corner of the Nou Camp). Seconds later, Diaby might have found Walcott on the break again... but he chose Bendtner down the left and good possession was squandered.

Up the other end surged Barcelona and there was Messi, that giant in every aspect other than height, to crash home the equaliser barely a minute after Arsenal's unexpected opener.

Walcott certainly had the Catalans quaking. Sergio was required to bring one lesson in Theology to a premature end but escaped a yellow card.

Seconds later, Denilson’s shrewd slide tackle clearly took the ball but Messie did the old double roll and Arsenal’s Brazilian was in the book. Disgraceful refereeing. But then, as Charlie George will tell you, I am one-eyed with rose-tinted glasses.

And of course, footballing justice dictated that it was Messi who got on the end of Barca’s second with 37 minutes gone with Gael Clichy scrambling to cover and Almunia gone to ground. A great finish, Arsenal out-numbered.

Still, the first half-an-hour hadn’t been as bad as the first 30 minutes at the Emirates. Arsenal were in it, Barca weren’t having it easy.

As their boss Pep Guardiola said in the build-up: “There’s no point in being the best side in the world and losing.”

So they didn’t. Messi’s hat-trick,his fourth this year, came before half-time as he broke clear past a creaking defence bereft of William Gallas and Sol Campbell. With the world watching, he refused to take the easy route. As he swept in, the Argentine simply lobbed the advancing Almunia, face on, escaping his outstretched gloves by inches to find the net. Incredible. Andy Gray on Sky was loving every moment, but then he is Scottish. Clearly, Messi is world class. But, as the Denilson incident had indicated earlier, he’s a cheat. I'm taking stick for saying that but hey, I can only write it as I see it.

Messi was clear again before the break but his touch was heavy. He’s not perfect. But at 22 after spending puberty on growth hormones, the bloke is pretty damn close to it. He doesn't need to do the full lottery roll-over every time somebody tackles him.

Four minutes into the second half he was a touch away from goal number four as Arsenal, understandably rattled, attempted to unflabber their gasts.

In the 50^th minute, Bendtner had the ghost of a chance but he was too slow pulling the trigger. The Dane is a tad short at this level, oh for a fit Robin van Persie or an elderly Thierry Henry, left on the bench by Barca against the club for whom he still holds every major scoring record.

In the Sky commentary box, Gray assured us Barca are just too good, Messi just too perfect. Why are there so many Jocks doing English commentary? This was a time for the old bulldog spirit.

A week before at this stage, Arsenal had been two goals down but rallied to draw 2-2. And a 3-3 draw at the Nou Camp would have put the Gunners through to the last four against Inter Milan, who had earlier seen off CSKA on the artificial pitch in Moscow.

After 72 minutes, Gael Clichy’s cross found Bendtner’s head with what looked a great chance. He hit the post when it looked easier to score – but the offside flag had been raised.

The awful Tomas Rosicky was then replaced by striker Eduardo as Arsene Wenger attempted to work the miracle.

But by then, it was too late. The spell had been cast by the tiny wizard. Thank God Messi’s got Diego “Hand of God/Face of Dog” Maradona running the show for Argentina in South Africa later in the year, otherwise he’d be nailed on to win the World Cup too.

But he wasn’t finished with Arsenal yet. With three minutes left and the game over, he turned the otherwise impressive Emmanuel Eboue, beat the unimpressive Thomas Vermaelen and forced Almunia into yet another save. But the rebound was stuck firmly through the fellow-Spaniard’s legs to make it 4-0.

That was his first four-goal burst in football. Just another stage in the growing process for the little lad from Rosario. Barca 4, Arsenal 1. That made it 6-3 on aggregate. And as Arsene Wenger contemplates a sixth year of dusty trophy cabinets, Barca can contemplate just how wise they were to provide growth hormone treatment to an 11-year-old crying out for growth hormone treatment.

That’s not a tall story. That’s the miracle of Messi.

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqck5JuZtuc

And: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/374426-the-good-the-mad-and-the-messi-barca-out-gun-arsenal-in-style