Posted in News on Jan 07, 2008.
who on arrival were handed their special training gear and were met by a team of specialist trainers and dieticians who were assessing the player’s fitness levels after the holidays.
The ease and comfort that the Chiefs players have these days in getting to and from training is a far cry from the way things were 38 years to the day on Monday when the Club was formed in Soweto on the 7th January 1970.
Uncertainty was abound for those who present on the day Chiefs began - little did they know that 38 years down the track and the team that began with humble beginnings in Phefeni in Soweto would become the most well supported team in the country.
While most South Africans got back to work on Monday after the Christmas and New Years holidays, the Chiefs players making their way to the gym would in all likelihood have been caught up in the morning rush hour Sandton traffic jam. Back when The Amakhosi was founded there was no thought that the city of Johannesburg would mushroom that far North and give birth to a whole new city called Sandton - contending with a traffic jam would have been a welcome challenge for the first players to represent the club - as they faced many more daunting ones amongst them being the political and socio economic issues, while the landscape of the country might have changed over the years, for just over three decades now Kaizer Chiefs has become part of the lives of many South Africans.
Emotional day
Joining Chiefs as a wide-eyed teenager just a few weeks after the formation of the club in February 1970 as a seventeen-year-old apprentice, Ryder Mofokeng has described the 7th January as an emotionally charged day for him.
Mofokeng made his debut for Chiefs in 1973 and spent thirteen successful years with the Club and was part of the all conquering Chiefs team of 1984. While speaking to kaizerchiefs.com on Monday he spoke of what the 7th January means to him and added.
“The day Chiefs was born will always be special to me, for more than 70% of my life I have been part of the Kaizer Chiefs family, and on this day I cannot forget all my former teammates and the good and challenging times that we shared together, I take time out to think about my teammates who are no longer in this world with us”.
Mofokeng, since his retirement as a player in 1986, has kept his links with the Club and as a coach in the Club's junior ranks, where at the present time still coaches one the Chiefs development teams. While speaking of his first days at the Club he added “when I got here I remember just being glad to be in the company of people like Ewert Nene, Zero Johnson, Kaizer Motaung and others.
The team was still young - just a month old- and every one had great expectations of the Club. The way the team has developed down the years has far exceeded those expectations. My wish is to be around for at least the next twelve years so that I can see the team reach half a century in existence, Happy Birthday Kaizer Chiefs”.
Mooki birthday wish
Chiefs veteran midfielder Thabo Mooki who celebrates a personal milestone of fourteen years with the Club in 2008, was on hand on Monday to pass on his best wishes to The Amakhosi on the day they celebrate 38 years in existence and said. “When I came to Chiefs in 1994, the Club had just turned twenty four and I never expected to be here when it reaches 38, for me it is wonderful to be able to still be around with the team on this special day.
Speaking of some of the changes he has seen the Club undergo in the time that he has been a Chiefs player Mooki said, “over the years I have seen many changes at the Club, notably the development of Naturena into a world-class facility, and the overall growth of the non playing staff compliment-which demonstrates the way the team has evolved not just on the field but away from it as well. My best wishes for the Club on their birthday and I hope they will continue to move forward over the next fifty years”.
