Leave my son alone - Badenhorst's father
MBABANE – The cat is finally out of the bag.
Just hours after Manzini Wanderers termed South Africa’s Jomo Cosmos E100 000 clearance fee offer for midfielder Felix Badenhorst ‘ridiculous’, it has emerged that the ‘Weslians’ have no legal ground to claim owner-ship of the player.
This newspaper has gathered that Badenhorst did not have a contract with the ‘Weslians’ and in fact the loan agreement they had with the midfielder’s former club, Intsha Sporting, expired in the 2007/08 season. This means, the player played the 2008/09 season without a contract.
A livid, Theo Badenhorst, the player’s father, in an interview with this newspaper yesterday, said Intsha Sporting should be the ones negotiating the player’s move to SA Cosmos – not Wanderers.
“Intsha Sporting loaned my son to Wanderers for one season two seasons ago and Wanderers only bought a soccer kit and soccer boots, getting him cheap and now they have the nerves to refuse E100 000. Why are they frustrating my son?” Badenhorst senior queried.
Badenhorst senior said it shocked him even more that the ‘Weslians’ now want to force the player to play in today’s Swazi Telecom Charity Cup game against Moneni Pirates, set for a breakfast time kick-off – 9am.
“Wanderers have not been honest and faithful to me. I have been paying school fees for my son and now they want E200 000. For what? He belongs to Intsha Sporting and they should not try and frustrate his move to Cosmos,” he insisted.
The player’s agency, KLM Sports Management Director, Mduduzi ‘Tsotsi’ Mabila also confirmed that Badenhorst had no contract with Wanderers.
“I will be meeting Wanderers officials tomorrow (today) to try and find a solution to this issue, where all parties will come out happy,” he said.
Wanderers’ officials were due to meet Badenhorst senior to negot-iate that he allows the talented midfielder to feature in today’s game against the Moneni Buccaneers.
Efforts to trace comment from Wanderers assistant PRO Babsy Mavuso proved futile as his phone rang unattended last night.