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Arsene Wenger was at one point close to signing a teenager Anele Ngcongca at Arsenal, said former agent and Bafana Bafana player’s youth coach Colin Gie.
Bafana’s stalwart right-back at the 2010 World Cup, one of South Africa’s most successful soccer exports in a Belgian career, died aged 33 in a car accident on the N2 outside Mtunzini on the north coast. from KwaZulu-Natal on Monday. Ngcongca was not the driver of the car.
Gie was the coach who saw Gugulethu’s 13-year-old Ngcongca at a test in 2001 for FC Fortune, the First Division club then associated with former Manchester United and Bafana midfielder Quinton Fortune.
Gie said he took the 17-year-old Ngcongca to trial with Arsenal around 2005. Later, the right-back signed the 19-year-old from FC Fortune for KRC Genk in Belgium.
“When I brought him to Arsenal, it took Arsene Wenger and Thierry Henry minutes to evaluate Anele as a very good player; I can’t give more praise,” Gie said.
He said that Arsenal’s intention was to sign Ngcongca, then not an international, so they couldn’t get a wok permit in England, and loan it to partner team KSK Beveren in Belgium.
“Unfortunately, there was a little problem with that club and the relationship with Arsenal broke down for whatever reason, and I had to find another way for him to enter Europe,” Gie recalled.
“That was when my good friend Hugo Broos was Genk’s manager, and that’s how I brought Anele to Genk. I was sad that he didn’t join Arsenal, but that’s life. “
In an interview with the Sunday Times in March 2013, Ngcongca described his trial at the Wynberg military base with 500 other applicants.
“Life was not easy in the dust of Gugulethu‚ with many gangsters around. My uncle found this article in the sports pages of a newspaper saying that Quinton Fortune was conducting a trial, and that they will try to do something with Manchester United, ”Ngcongca said at the time.
“The [his uncle] He said, ‘Why not stop playing street games and try your luck?’ He was so scared because he had never been to court. My mom said, ‘Go. If you fail, you fail and life goes on. ‘
“After the trial, Mr. Gie said that I didn’t have to come back the second day, I just had to bring my birth certificate and two photos, I was on the team. I was so excited that once I got out of the Wynberg cab, I ran home, I couldn’t wait to tell my mom. “
Gie, the 1970s Highlands Park star and now SAB League Cape Town United director and coach, said he remembered the story as “similar to that, but not quite like that.”
“I still remember his judgment very clearly,” Gie said. “Was highlighted. Without a doubt, he was one of the best young players I have ever explored, and I have explored Quinton Fortune and many others. “
Gie said that for Ngcongca, succeeding in Europe was a way to help her entire family out of difficult financial circumstances and a difficult life in Gugulethu.
“Yes, it came from a poor upbringing. It’s a very sad story, very much like Quinton Fortune, to be told, ”said Gie.
Ngcongca played for Genk from 2007 to 2015, winning the 2010-11 Jupiler Pro League and three cups. He played one season at Troyes in French Ligue 1 in 2015-16, then in four years at Mamelodi Sundowns he won three more league titles and two cups.
The right-back was in KwaZulu-Natal to finalize a loan from Sundowns to AmaZulu.
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