Kaizer Chiefs legend Itumeleng Khune has expressed disappointment in Bruce Bvuma for not taking his advice like current Bafana Bafana number one Ronwen Williams.
Khune has worked with both goalminders, competing with Williams at national team level for the number one jersey and with Bvuma at club level for a few years having taken him under his wing.
The 37-year-old spoke to iDiski Times writer Lethabo Kganyago in edition 200 of the newspaper where he outlined how he advised Williams to fight to start by ignoring their relations. That has propelled the Mamelodi Sundowns man to new heights on his way to captaining Bafana Bafana.
Khune however feels that Bvuma, who is currently struggling for consistent clean sheets at Amakhosi, wasted an opportunity to learn from him.
“I was grooming Ronwen,” Khune told iDiski Times.
“When he came to Bafana, I told him we are not here to make friends. We are here to compete. You make me better, I make you better, we make the national team better. So, he took those words, and I fail to understand why Bruce Bvuma didn’t listen to that advice.
“Because now, the way he’s struggling, he should have taken my advice when I gave it to him. He could be number one still, he could be one of the best candidates in the team and the national team. But now he’s also inconsistent because he thought I play with Itu in the same team so I can’t take his advice, but someone who came from outside appreciated my words. Now he has taken football by storm. He’s been to the FIFA Ballon d’Or awards, and I communicate with him almost every day.
“He is the boy who listened at a very young age. Me and Ronwen, we spent more than 10 years together at Bafana. He knew when he was coming to camp, Itu is number one. He kept telling me I want to be number one, one day and I was like ‘If you want that, we are not here to be friends, you must work hard for it. Perform at your club, come to the national team, perform at training, maybe the coach will give it to you’.
“But at my prime, I was always up there, and I was like, no one is going to come in to take my number one.”
