Former Golden Arrows player and coach Vusumuzi Vilakazi has revealed the real reason behind his premature retirement from playing football.
Vilakazi was just unveiled as the new head coach of Motsepe Foundation Championship outfit Highbury.
Affectionately known as ‘Kanu’ in football circles, he played for Abafana Bes’thende from 2006 until he decided to retire in 2012 at the age of 30.
Vilakazi explained that because of his close relationships with the club’s founder, the late Rocky Madlala, and current chairlady Mato Madlala, coaches suspected him of being a management spy who “badmouthed” them.
He stated that this mistrust did not sit well with him, ultimately prompting him to hang up his boots early.
Following his retirement, Vilakazi served as a media officer for Arrows before their relegation to the second tier, later taking up an assistant coach role.
In 2014, he made a brief playing comeback for a few months when the club suffered an injury crisis up front, but he returned to the technical team once new strikers were signed in the following transfer window.
“It was a premature retirement of course but the reason…I think it’s the first time I’m stating this reason as I’m talking to you,” said Vilakazi during the interview with The Legacy Experience Podcast.
“I decided to retire because I was very close to the late boss Rocky Madlala and to Mato Madlala. So, I thought like coaches felt like I was a spy.
“That didn’t sit well with me, they saw that I was close with them, they like me and coaches thought I was badmouthing them.
“I woke up one day, I think the coach was Middendorp and we were training here [at King Zwelithini Stadium], I told Mato. I didn’t know what was going to be the next step.
“But since I had a lump sum of money, I was thinking of a business I wanted to start and just leave football and return to Joburg.
“Mato said she wanted me to remain the club’s structures, even though she didn’t know what I was going to do but she would see.
“When Shaun Bartlett was coaching the club, assisted by Bheka Phakathi, we had strikers’ problem, they were injured, I had to return to playing.
“Before the club was relegated, I was a media officer, but in the second-tier, there was no need for a media officer and I became a second assistant to Shaun Bartlett.
“But it was only six games before the window opens and we sign the strikers and I would go back to my position.”