Nale Greatful For Time At Chiefs And Looking To Excel At Aces
Abia Nale finally
secured a permanent move to Mpumalanga Black Aces after obtaining his clearance
from Kaizer Chiefs earlier in this season. Nale who had a successful loan spell
with Aces last season talks about his move from Abafana Basephefeni.
Personal Information
Full Names: Abia Sehloho Nale
Date of birth: 5 October 1985
Place of birth: Sebokeng, Gauteng
Nickname: Soul Provider
Position: Midfielder
Jersey no: 11
Club: Mpumalanga Black Aces
Previous Clubs: Orlando Pirates juniors, Manning Rangers, City Pillars, Golden Arrows, Kaizer Chiefs, Ajax Cape Town.
Honours: 2009/10 Telkom Knockout winner, 2010/11 Telkom Knockout winner, 2010/11 Telkom Charity Cup winner, 2011/12 MTN8 runner-up, 2011/12 Carling Black Label Cup runner-up, 2012/13 Carling Black Label Cup runner-up (all with Kaizer Chiefs), 5 U20 caps, 2 Bafana Bafana caps
Soul Provider, you trained
with Aces when the team returned for pre-season in June, but you later stopped
and trained on your own. What happened and why did you stop training with the
team?
My loan agreement with Aces was for last season until the
end of June. I had to be there until June and had to see what happened afterwards.
So I went there for a week, but there were some issues that needed to be
resolved at Chiefs. I had to stop because I couldn’t train with the team while
I was not contracted. It was risky for me training without a contract. Anything
could have happened.
Tell us about the
issues that needed to be resolved at Chiefs.
There were no issues as such. They had to sort out the issue
of the clause in the contract and stuff like that, so they were busy with those
matters.
You were a free agent
to every other club except for Aces because of the agreement between them and
Chiefs on the original loan deal. Were not you worried about the deal when Aces
were looking to sign you permanently?
Not really because I didn’t understand what the clause was
about or what was happening and stuff like that. I knew if Aces wanted me, they
would sort that out, and if they didn’t want me, they wouldn’t deal with it.
But I was confident because I had the support of my family and everyone who was
around me. Their support was out of this world. I knew that it was a matter of
time. It was one of the challenges I had to go through.
You have been a
Chiefs player for years and you were one of the fan favourites there. How would
you describe your time with the club?
What can I say about my time with Chiefs? I have always been
welcomed at the club from day one. Even today I’m still welcome at Chiefs, they
treat me like family. Everyone there, the bosses and everyone who works there,
treat me as their own son. I’m part of the family, even though I’m no longer
there. I still talk to them. I gained experience there and they taught me to be
humble, down-to-earth and to respect. I learnt to always be there for the
supporters and to always give them smiles and sign autographs for them because
I am where I am today because of them. Even today they still recognise me and
greet me when they see me. They haven’t changed. I guess they would do that
until I stop playing football. Many people aspiring to play football dream
about playing for Chiefs. It was my
dream playing for Chiefs while growing up. I was a fan of Doctor Khumalo. I
would want to see him whenever I watched Chiefs play. I was very lucky to have been
coached by him which was one of the biggest things that ever happened in my
life. I still respect him and I know that he respected me as well, as a
footballer.
In whatever happens in life, we have to understand that
clubs make business decisions regarding the players. Even with them, if
something bad happens to them when they are at the big teams, they don’t have
to look down. There’s always the light. In life you have to take risks, how
would you know where you stand if you don’t take risks? Football for us is
about having fun, we should enjoy it and the rest will come. It is a God-given
talent, otherwise if it wasn’t, we would be playing for one season and
disappear. Playing for five to ten years as a professional player shows that
you are doing something that God gave to you. Whatever is happening now
determines what will be happening in the future. You must stay humble and work
hard and don’t run after money. We must learn from the past from those who were
there before us, we read about them in the newspapers when they motivate the
young players. So those are some of the things I learnt from Chiefs.
Nale, thank you very
much for your time.
Thanks