Orlando Pirates winger Oswin Appollis has detailed how he found himself at a crossroads in his football career, facing a situation that could easily have driven him into gangsterism.
Growing up in Bishop Lavis on the Cape Flats, Appollis lived in a community plagued by entrenched gangsterism, with drugs and violence deeply woven into the daily realities of many. He stood between immortalising his name on the pitch and being swallowed by societal vices that have shattered the dreams of many aspiring footballers.
The wideman admits his father was a gangster in Bishop Lavis, and there were fears that he, too, could follow that perilous path.
Starting his career with the then Ajax Cape Town youth ranks, Appollis got a big break that brought him to Gauteng to join SuperSport United’s development side.
But not long after making it into the Matsatsantsa senior side, Appollis found himself walking out of SuperSport after making “reckless decisions.”
GIRLS, FLYING FRIENDS TO JOBURG AND SPLASHING MONEY – HOW APPOLLIS SPIRALLED
“SuperSport United came knocking, and they gave me a contract. I showed it to my mother, and she said, ‘I know you’re young, but this contract helps the whole family. You have to go,” Appollis said on BucsCamp: Brotherhood.
“That moment moving to SuperSport at such a young age actually opened my eyes coming to Joburg life. At that time, I was staying at the clubhouse and then I didn’t want to stay at the clubhouse after a year and a half because I felt let me go out.
“My mother was always fighting with me, telling me, ‘don’t go, stay there.’ But at that moment, I just wanted freedom to go outside. Then I started staying with my two friends.
“Obviously, there were times we would go out and you meet girls. I would fly my friends to Joburg [from Cape Town]. At that time, I was 17 or 18, and I made reckless decisions with money.
“I ended up leaving SuperSport. I just decided to go AWOL. I just left. The day I went back to my family, the day I came in through the door, they told me, ‘I told you that you would learn the hard way.”
ESCAPING FROM GANGSTERISM
The six months he spent back home, clubless, in the Western came with the risk of drifting into gangsterism.
“So I wasn’t playing football for six months. My mum’s words were, ‘Go through your phone and find any coach you know. Try to call or message anyone you can get,” said Appollis.
“‘You are going back to playing football because there is nothing for you at home. You will just turn out like all the other boys that grew up in our area because it’s very dangerous.’
“To be honest, I would say sixty percent yes, I would have been doing the wrong things because I grew up seeing everything. It was not a nice experience because growing up, my father was a gangster.
“So, people thought I would also become a gangster and that’s because I was very naughty. But my mother always believed that I would never become my father.”
The hiatus from football was then followed by a move to the University of Pretoria, a lifeline that then led him to Pretoria Callies and Polokwane City. While at Rise and Shine, Appollis broke into Bafana Bafana and signed for Pirates.
The 24-year-old went to the 2023 AFCON finals and returned to the just-ended continental competition.
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