As a goalkeeper he did not receive a single red card. His career started in 1976 and went on till 2001. We meet Farouk at his house in Mannenberg. Probably not the best place to live in Cape Town, whilst actually having much better oportunities. But when we finished talking, it was obvious that this suits him perfectly. This straightforward and living legend of South African soccer. On par with Dino Zoff, Claudio Taffarel, Sepp Maier or Peter Shilton.
His titles go beyond the scope. Several times National Player of the Year, Best Achiever of the Year, Sportsman of the Year, received the President‘s Award and won the championship with several clubs. Being “coloured” he was not allowed to play for the national team during the apartheid.
He grew up in the township in Wynberg close to Cape Town. Circumstances, in the 50s and 60s, were more than tough. “It‘s all about territory. When it gets too tight, the fight begins. Soccer is often like that as well”, he says with his typical but unobtrusive smile. “If you survive a childhood like mine, you will survive everything.”
He proudly shows us a big book at a small table in the corridor. Hundreds of articles from newspapers and magazines about him, about his sports career, about his life. “It‘s kind of sad and ironic.”, he says, as we flick through the book. “All the people who were important in my life died while I was on the soccer field.” The fans used to call him Mighty Mouse Farouk and still do. His family has come, especially for our visit. Counting 11 people. His two youngest sons are kicking the ball with their dad, who‘s talking calmly about the chances of Bafana Bafana. He‘s sceptical.
After his player career he became a coach and again great success was on his side: Coach of the Year, Football Personality of the Year and Football Writers Coach of the Year. He specialized during the season 1996/1997 and coached all goalkeepers of the clubs in Cape Town together. He advanced to being the goalkeeper coach of the national team at the FIFA Worldcup in Korea in 2002.
Even before, in 1998, he dedicated himself to a new big task and founded the Goalkeeper Academy. Unpriviliged children are getting the chance to practice and prepare for a professional career. Some of Farouk‘s contacts and recommendations became the ticket to a better life for some of his young emulators.
We visit the academy‘s training ground and can see black, coloured and even some white boys, jumping into crosses and shots, fearlessly and resolutely. Farouk and his coaching team look after lots of boys even after the training. To make sure they attend school, not to turn into crime and to visit the training. Lots of them have very bad or extremely poor social backgrounds and Farouk is a big brother to quite a lot of them, maybe even more. When we say goodbye, I realize that soccer is believing here, which is much more than about soccer, it‘s really about a chance in life.
Farouk is publisher and chief editor of his own soccer magazine and ambassador of the FIFA worldcup 2010. One of his sportive milestones is still aware. He kept the ball out of the goal for 14 matches in a row. “Ok,” he says in the end, “I got booked once. But I can‘t remember why. Maybe it was a wrong decision.” He laughs.
