Snl24 | Phala: When You At Chiefs, Everything Is For Free

Former SuperSport United and Kaizer Chiefs star Thuso Phala.

Former SuperSport United and Kaizer Chiefs star Thuso Phala had a light-hearted but honest conversation about his approach to financial literacy during his playing days.

Check it out!

What’s the story?

Recently retired baller Thuso Phala spoke about financial literacy and his attitude towards it during his playing days.

Phala played for Amakhosi from 2007 until 2009 and revealed how the club would try help players manage their finances, with former attacker mentioning how he’d bypass the advice on offer.

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Let’s take a closer look at what Phala had to say…

Thuso Phala jokes about financial literacy

Thuso Phala announced his retirement from football last month on Robert Marawa’s radio show, having represented Platinum Stars, SuperSport United, Kaizer Chiefs and Black Leopards.

The 37-year-old hopped on the “Kota ‘n Chill” podcast to look back on his football career, where he got candid about his experiences at the various clubs he played for, the politics and of course, finances.

“If you play in South Africa, you don’t make enough money to sustain yourself after football,” said Phala on the podcast, where he mentioned that his financial demands got more intensive towards the end of his career.

When asked by the podcast hosts about what the clubs do to educate their players on finances, Phala mentioned there are systems in place and how it wasn’t easy for him to commit himself to financial literacy courses after training.

“Just remember, you’re talking about people that are working [professional footballers], my contract says I need to be at training right? and then I leave. A course can be suggested, it’s fine, but if I’m making R100k, you’re going to tell me to go to a financial course afterwards? You’re kidding me.

“It would be a Friday, on an off-weekend and you’re telling me there’s a financial course to attend at 2pm… We train at 10am right? and finish at 12 and someone will say ‘Guys, there’s financial advisors, from 2 until 4, that will be running a class in Auckland Park, and you’ll be like ‘Okay sharp, it’s not compulsory right?'” says Phala, painting a scenario of how he’d ignore calls to attend financial literacy classes.

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Phala spoke about how at Chiefs, they’d have a banker give them financial advice during training hours at times and exposed the reality of how hard it is to manage large amounts of money at such a young age.

“Most of us footballers after matric, we get exposed to this money. There’s a few that would go to varsity, it’s easy to study. I also could’ve studied, after playing football? There’s these online courses, for two hours a day, I could have easily done it.

“But, at that time, a boy that age, earning so much, with a lot of exposure… because when you’re at Chiefs, everything is for free,” says Phala, mentioning that it’s not easy for young players to priorities studies when they’re making a lot of money playing football.

Watch the podcast below…. they cover finances after minute 30:

Take a scroll through the Thuso Phala gallery: