As tributes continue to pour in following the passing of Kaizer Chiefs player Luke Fleurs, former SuperSport United star Clayton Daniels has recalled how he sharpened the defender after joining the club at 18.
Fleurs made his debut in professional football at 17 for Ubuntu Cape Town FC. He played one season in the second-tier prior to making a switch to the Spartans.
The former South African junior international penned a long-term deal with the Tshwane-based side. He had to encounter an immense challenge to establish himself at the club, competing for a regular spot alongside the seasoned centre-backs – Daniels, Morgan Gould and Bongani Khumalo.
In an emotional chat with FARPost, Daniels described the Ubuntu Football Academy product as a “happy soul”.
He says Fleurs was good-hearted in a manner that, when he was new at the club, he would be reluctant to do a defender’s dirty work like “tackling”. Daniels had to teach him to be “mean” when he was on the field.
Seeing the potential that the young talent from Mitchells Plain had, the former Mamelodi Sundowns defender shared his expertise with Fleurs and helped with extra training.
Fleurs became a regular and went on to amass 70 appearances, scoring two goals in the colours of Matsatsantsa before he secured a “dream” move to Kaizer Chiefs.
CLAYTON DANIELS ON FLEURS – ‘I TOLD HIM, GET THAT SMILE AWAY OF YOUR FACE’
“I’m very, very shocked. I’m sad. I’m heartbroken. I can’t believe it. I still can’t get around it,” Daniels told FARPost.
“Luke is special. When he came to SuperSport, he was always willing to learn, always asking me, ‘How do I do this? How did I do that? And what should I do better?’
“And I would always tell him rule number one, ‘Get that smile [away] of your face because for a centre-back you must have the mean face’. But in the end, I couldn’t change his personality; he was just like that. He was [always] happy, always smiling, but he had all the potential of going far in his career.
“I used to train him hard at times because he was so gifted. He thought that he didn’t have to do the dirty work like heading, tackling, and running for a centre-back.
“I’d let him head 50 balls after training so that he can learn that responsibility of the team resting on him, and he got better and better. I’m proud of the Spartan he became.
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