Cape football fans are in for a treat next PSL season with three clubs in the top flight and three derbies – home and away. To draw crowds, these clubs need to go into the history books to see how legend Ismail ‘Miley’ Abass who, with his teammates, drew thousands to watch Cape Town Spurs play, writes Gasant Abarder in a new #SliceOfGasant column.
Abarder, who recently launched his book, Hack with a Grenade, is among the country’s most influential media voices. Catch his weekly column here.
Ismail ‘Miley’ Abass passed away on Sunday with a smile on his face, says his widow, Muneerah. She hardly left his side in hospital as he was gravely ill for weeks. He was surrounded by his children and grandchildren who all say Miley was content.
Boeta Miley’s soccer heart would have been happy too as he was buried yesterday from his Pope Street home in Salt River. Before his passing, he would have seen his beloved Cape Town Spurs come full circle and about to enter the top tier of South African football.
Cape Town Spurs’s promotion to the PSL is significant for football in the Mother City because now there are three pro clubs in top-flight football, along with Cape Town City Football Club and Stellenbosch FC.
It’s great for the game in a city that saw Miley and his brother Seraj ‘Kosie’ Abass draw crowds of 36 000 to Athlone Stadium on Monday nights when they both played for Cape Town Spurs from 1970.
Younger brother Seraj, now 71, was the rock in defence but it was Miley that made the earth move. And not just for his then-girlfriend Muneerah. She says his nickname was ‘Earthquake’ because the ground used to shake when he made a run on the left flank of the field. It may have been the crowd rising to their feet or his powerful gait as he smashed goals into the back of the net with his lethal left foot that earned him the nickname. Football fans of this era didn’t just dish out superlatives easily.
That season he, Seraj and a third player scouted from Blackpool Football Club in Salt River would help Cape Town Spurs win the Federation Professional League title at their first attempt.
Miley had a trademark way of cocking his right hand like a fast bowler in delivery stride as he twisted and turned defenders and sat them down.
There is something in the water in Salt River when it comes to football. Apart from Miley and Seraj, Banyana ace and current coach Desiree Ellis spent her formative years also involved at Blackpool and playing in the streets of the suburb. Blackpool and Celtic Wanderers are still around but back then, the small area had a wealth of clubs that produced top players.
You could choose to play for Blackpool, Lillies, Woodsides, Squares and Junction Rovers.
‘People came to the ground just to watch Miley play,’ says Seraj, who travelled from Joburg to Salt River for the burial. Seraj had settled in Joburg in 1977 after signing for Dynamos with Boebie Solomons, Mansoor Abdullah, Dougie Carelse and Rashied Khan.
Miley stopped playing by then. Seraj hardly watches football these days.
‘The game has become too technical. The coaches are not allowing the players to play to their full ability. They’re killing the skills,’ says Seraj.
‘South Africa doesn’t have a soccer identity. Our football should emulate the Bafana side of 1996 that won the African Cup of Nations. That is South African football – the balance between the physical players like Eric Tinkler, the skills of John ‘Shoes’ Moshoeu and the finishing of Shaun Bartlett.’
It is interesting that Seraj mentions Shaun Bartlett. Shaun is an unassuming, modest character who turned into an assassin when he walked onto a football pitch, having played for South Africa and in the English Premier League. Much like Miley, he used to tear opponents apart and score goals that made the woodwork rattle as the ball hit the back of the net.
Shaun led Cape Town Spurs to re-entry into the PSL – forged out of the now defunct Ajax Cape Town – as manager a few weeks ago. He has signed for another two years and he certainly knows how to win.
For the Abass clan, the football legacy continues through Miley’s grandson Mikaeel ‘Spike’ Abass who is under-16 but already plays under-18 for Salt River Blackpool.
Muneerah and her children Shehaam, Rayhana, Yumna, Riyaad and Aaliyah and their grandchildren remember a kind, generous man who would later serve his community as chair of the Tennyson Street Mosque and Daroel Ielm Institute in Salt River for many years.
But it was the 36 000 who watched Miley make the earth quake that will remind Shaun Bartlett of the real roots of Cape Town Spurs and how to draw a crowd.
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Picture: Supplied