There is life after Kaizer Chiefs for Bernard Parker as he is rewinding the clock with good performances at TS Galaxy.
The former Chiefs striker, who was released last season, has been in impressive form for Galaxy.
Coach Sead Ramovic has played Parker in the double pivot with Mlungisi Mbunjana and the former Bafana Bafana striker has shown that he still got the legs to run for 90th minute.
The 36-year-old, who left Chiefs after 11 years at the end of last season where he became the club’s top scorer in the PSL era with 64 goals, was at the heart as Galaxy messed up the day for AmaZulu coach Romain Folz to win 2-1 at Moses Mabhida Stadium last Saturday.
That was Parker’s 16 league appearances this season, having scored two goals in the process, as Galaxy moved to seventh in the DStv Premiership table.
This means the former PSL Golden Shoe winner has met the physical demands demanded by coach Ramovic, who got rid of Sibusiso Vilakazi for not pulling up his weight when he was needed to.
Another player who suffered the same fate was youngster Aphelele Teto, who was struck by the club to train with the reserve side. He too did not cope with Ramovic’s demands.
“(What happened to Vilakazi and Teto) that has nothing to do with me, for me it is just to focus on myself and that is what I have been doing,” said Parker to the iDiski Times when asked what he has done differently to meet Ramovic’s sterner demands.
“We are a small squad and there are standards to the team to be met, and certain standards and demands need or have to be met individually.”
As Parker was no longer meeting Chiefs fans’ expectations, he was used as a scapegoat and suffered a lot of criticism towards the latter days at the Soweto giants.
But he walked away with his head held high and proudly so. He’s the last player to score four goals for the club when Chiefs crushed AmaZulu 6-0 in the opening game of the 2012/13 season at the Moses Mabhida Stadium and he’s also the last player to win the PSL golden shoe at Chiefs which was in the 2013/14 season.
Also when Chiefs last won the Nedbank Cup in 2012/13 season to claim the double, Parker scored the winner when he beat Ronwen Williams from the edge of the box against SuperSport United in the final at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
“Criticism is from anywhere,” reacted Parker when that question was never asked of him. Perhaps he knew that question was going to come later in the interview.
“Big players in the world get criticism, who am I? I take the criticism and I turn it into motivation.”
Despite criticism, Parker won the Eredivisie – the league title with FC Twente in the Netherlands in the 2009/10 season under Steve McClaren.
