Benni McCarthy Reveals How Fight With Kaizer Chiefs Boss Drove Him to Join Orlando Pirates

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has shared some behind-the-scenes intrigues that saw him end his career at South African giants Orlando Pirates.

McCarthy enjoyed a great playing career in Europe where he featured for Ajax Amsterdam, Celta Vigo, FC Porto, Blackburn Rovers and West Ham.

However, his stint at West Ham was not as successful with injuries and weight issues hampering him and it was the time when he had problems with the South African national team, seeing him dropped out of the 2010 World Cup squad for a number of reasons.

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When he left the Hammers, McCarthy returned home to finish his career and while he was still searching for a club, a report claimed that Kaizer Chiefs were about to sign a ‘big fish’ with many concluding that it could only be him.

However, Chiefs football manager Bobby Motaung dismissed that notion, saying McCarthy was a player who was past his best and not the ‘big fish’ his club was looking to bring in, something that the now Harambee Stars boss did not take kindly.

“Bobby said apparently to someone when they heard; ‘Hey, I hear you guys are signing Benni’ and his response was; ‘Kaizer Chiefs don’t sign washed up players. He [McCarthy] is not the only big fish in town’,” McCarthy said on SuperSport TV.

“That person then went and told a friend of mine and the friend said; ‘Hey my man, I thought you and Bobby were tight and I said yeah, we are good. There is mutual respect, we have a lot of respect for each other. I have never had anything against Bobby or anyone

“And he said; ‘but [Bobby] said this and that’ and I am like; ‘really’! Then for me was to go and ask him; ‘Bro why are you being disrespectful.’ But then I thought it was not the right place and time for that. It is okay just let it slide, we are in the club, let’s have fun,” McCarthy further said, recalling how he nearly confronted Motaung in a nightclub over what he had said about him.

Being called a ‘washed up player’ stung for McCarthy, given he had won big trophies, including the UEFA Champions League, the only South African to achieve such a feat, and he was looking for a perfect moment to get his revenge.

It is at this point that Orlando Pirates chairman Irvin Khoza met McCarthy when he had gone to watch the Soweto Derby while still a free agent and put his proposal on the table to the striker, who was initially hesitant due to the fact that his family supports Chiefs.

“At the derby, the chairman Dr Irvin Khoza came and asked; ‘Please, if I can meet him’ and I said; ‘no, no. I am flying back to Cape Town tomorrow’ and he said; ‘at five or six o’clock before you go to the airport’,” McCarthy revealed.

“I have a sense where this is going. Then I went to see him the next day at five o’clock and within 10 minutes, the chairman tells me my life story from when I was young and I was like; ‘Oh my God, this guy knows so much about me from when I was playing at Young Pirates and during Bafana.’

“And he said; ‘listen, Pirates will restore your legacy, you come back, put on that Pirates shirt, you win what you need to win and you will earn the respect back that you have lost during your fight with Bafana and SAFA.’

“I was like my dad must not know but then I had that little thing about Bobby and then I was like; Okay Mr chairman. Done deal, I am coming for Bobby.”

McCarthy would go on to get his revenge on Motaung as he scored twice against Chiefs in his first Soweto Derby and ensured his ‘enemy’ was aware of it while his two year-stint at Pirates, between 2011 and 2013, yielded three trophies, including the club’s last league title in 2012, when he was the driving force with key goals.