Cape Town – Daine Klate gets straight to the point.
The Wits man knows this interview is all about his call-up to Bafana Bafana on Thursday, so he wastes no time answering the first obvious question: why has a decorated player with 12 domestic trophies struggled to make the national team?
“I really thought I had done enough to be in the 2010 World Cup squad (under then-coach Carlos Alberto Parreira) on home soil, especially after being voted the Footballer of the Year that season. This has been eluding me for most of my career,” he said.
“I have made peace with the fact that I missed out, but it was the biggest disappointment for me. I always say that everything happens for a reason.”
One would understand why it hurts Klate so much to not have been given an opportunity to represent his country on the biggest global stage for any footballer.
At 31, a player who has won three PSL titles with SuperSport United and two with Orlando Pirates, has only made one start for Bafana. Puzzling.
“I just never got a look-in, never had an opportunity, even when I thought the Player of the Season award was enough. That’s all behind me now and it is about this call-up now and the massive game against Senegal that’s coming up,” Klate added.
“I need to try and make the most of what is in front of me because I can’t predict the future. With all my previous disappointments, you can never turn down the chance to go play for your country. You can’t say no.”
He will report for duty along with Wits teammates Thulani Hlatshwayo and Eleazar Rodgers for Bafana’s second 2018 World Cup qualifier against Group D leaders Senegal at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane two weeks.
And given how coach Shakes Mashaba justified Klate’s inclusion in his 25-man squad, arguing that the national team was in urgent need of a “specialist” in wing play, the father of two is well aware that he is under pressure to perform, whether he starts or gets a 10-minute cameo.
He last wore the Bafana jersey three years ago in a dead-rubber World Cup qualifier against Botswana.
Klate yearns to make a serious contribution. His 13 appearances to date – maybe apart from his debut under Stuart Baxter over a decade ago in the Gold Cup in the US – can easily be viewed as low-category outings.
“I’d love to play in the next World Cup (Russia) and this means looking after myself as best as I can. Yes, I can safely say the proper opportunity wasn’t given to me. I don’t think I got as many chances as the players in my position,” Klate argued.
“Even when the team wasn’t doing well for a few years, I never really got a look-in. Then the coaches changed a lot and I got five minutes here and 10 there, maybe a half against Lesotho away. Those type of games. The Cosafa Cup against Zambia, coming off the bench.
“I was never really a starting player. If you look at my club career, it is week in week out that I start a game. I am involved and I am an important player to the team, but I have never had that responsibility at Bafana, always playing with guys that were more experienced and had about 50 caps more than me.
“This is not an excuse, but I know there will be a lot of talk now that I am there. I am not going to put any pressure on myself. I don’t think I have a lot to prove to anybody because, at 31, what is there to prove? I am just going out there to add value.”
Can Klate build on being back in the Bafana fold?
“Your time in football is never really up until you decide that it’s up. For me, I think there is still time. I will try and give it my best. What is most important right now is the upcoming game. We can talk about my history with Bafana and the future, but my focus is on what is expected of me at this point in time.”
– Sunday Argus