From gangster to soccer legend

Do you remember where you were or how old you were in 1996, when South African football veteran Mark Williams scored two goals for Bafana Bafana in the Afcon finals, bagging the only trophy our country has ever won? 

Defeating Tunisia 2-0, the 57-year old had earned his befitting nickname, Nation Builder, after that South African historic moment at the FNB Stadium 27 years ago. 

The former Jomo Cosmos and Mamelodi Sundowns striker says he was given at least 24 hours to decide whether he was going to represent his country in the tournament or continue to stay with the team he was playing for at the time, Wolverhampton Wanderers FC, popularly known as the Wolves in England. 

He said he never let money keep him from doing what is right for his country.  

“Wolves offered to pay me millions of pounds and a three-year contract not to come and play for Bafana Bafana. But if I hadn’t seen SA winning the Rugby World Cup in 1995, I probably would have accepted the offer, but I remember watching that Springboks team match and crying, hoping that one day I would be part of that team and do it for my country.

“It wasn’t easy, I must have hopped in and out of about 10 nightclubs that night. I told the coach that I think my country needs me,” Willams recalled.

Ever since that significant event, the well-travelled icon is forever grateful to have come so far, where he is a legend who lives to tell his own tough journey.

He is determined to inspire school children to make better life decisions through his recently released autobiography. 

Titled From Gangster to Soccer Legend, Williams hopes to visit schools across the country to share his life experiences on escaping gangsterism and becoming a person many see as a national hero. 

Growing up in Claremont, Cape Town, he says he was in extreme survival mode and had to protect himself from gangs by joining a gang himself.

He said facing poverty with his mother and four brothers and belonging to the Backstreet Kids gang was the darkest time of his time. 

“I was only 16-years old and had to protect myself by attacking others because I had to survive. I had to live like I am in a jungle. I am glad to still be alive. I had to join some gangster group because if I didn’t belong to any group I was going to be killed. But because I knew that I belonged to one, I at least thought this would make me feel safe,” said Williams.

“My story is honest as I bear it all about me and where I come from. I have not gone back to the Mother City to promote it yet. I would love to promote my book in schools because I have wanted to inspire kids since I was in the same place years back. I want to show them that they can do it since I also did it, it doesn’t matter where you come from.”  

He promises his fans that his first book, which was released in November last year, will have a sequel, which will be titled From Cape Flats to Soccer Legend before he closes it off with a documentary. 

“Right now I would love to see big companies partner with me where we can go to these schools and talk to them because they need role models. We don’t have a lot of role models because some celebrities are shy to talk about their backgrounds,” said Williams.

After being chucked out of the area during the apartheid era, he and his family went to settle in Hanover Park, a neighbourhood in the Cape Flats.

This was followed by going to bed hungry at times while he lived in one room with his mother and four brothers. Williams says he promised his mother a house amid poverty. 

Hoping that one day he would make this dream a reality, he took part in some amateur football matches, playing for three teams, which were predominantly owned by taxi bosses and drug dealers in the ‘Sunday Leagues’. 

“I told my mother that whoever wants me to play for their club should pay me R250 per game and a meal from KFC. At the time, it was a luxury and was mostly for white people. I would play one game in the morning for a club owned by a gangster and by noon I would play for another team and another after that. I had to catch taxis from one match to another and that’s how I would make money,” he shares.

From Jomo Cosmos in 1988 to 1990 to Mamelodi Sundowns in 1991, he delivered his promise of finding a new home for his mother. 

“I lived in Cape Flats and didn’t know what was on the other side of the mountain but when I went there I got so much shock because I had never seen so many big houses in my life and I told myself that I would buy a house there and I bought myself a house in Camps Bay and Bryanston, and I rent them out. 

“In 1992, I built my mom a house. I made sure to also get into property and have bought a few houses ever since I retired in 2002.” 

With his job as a football analyst on SuperSports channel, Williams wishes to start his own tournament one day. 

ratsatsik@sowetan.co.za