Kaizer Chiefs second choice goalkeeper, Emile Baron says that the circumstances under which he was brought up in the impoverished Western Cape Town of Ocean View outside Cape Town is what motivated him to greater achievements.

Baron who joined the Amakhosi midway through last season from Lillestroom in Norway, is confident that he can regain his place in the Bafana Bafana team as well challenge Rowen Fernandez for a place the number one spot.

Baron says the sacrifices he had to undergo as a young player have kept him going through his career and the poverty and violence he has seen in parts of the Western Cape motivated him to used his talents to succeed at all costs.

He explains “when I started out with Hellenic it used to take me two hours to get from my home in Ocean View to training at Green Point stadium and I used to return home almost everyday after 11h00pm”.

Three taxis and a fifty-five minute train journey was what it took for Emile to make the 25km journey from Ocean View to training braving the physical elements in winter and the human element that sometimes greeted him at night on the Cape Town metro. “From Ocean view I used to take a taxi to a certain point and than another one to Fishhoek - from there I boarded a train to Cape Town Central once there it was another taxi to Greenpoint Stadium.

“In life there comes a time when you have to help those who helped you and my parents made sure I could succeed although there were times when my mother thought I was just plain mad to be going through this day in and day out”.

With his confidence on the up Baron is ready to take on the Premier League and he reclaim the Bafana Bafana jersey he lost a year ago.