‘Gunshots Was the Norm’ - Benni McCarthy on How Football and His Strict Father Saved Him from Becoming a Gangster

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy has opened up about how he came close to becoming a gang member when growing up in Cape Town.

McCarthy was raised in the gang-ridden streets of Hanover Park on the Cape Flats, one of the most dangerous places to live in Cape Town, and grew up in a football-loving family that had his father, mother, grandmother, sister and brother as well as two cousins.

Going out to play with his brother and cousins, the McCarthy children had to be vigilant as stray bullets would come from any corner and it was easy to join the gangs as some of their peers were part of it.

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However, McCarthy credits sports, specifically football, for keeping him away from crime and he did not know that it would later come to make him rich and famous.

“It was a very gang-infested area,” McCarthy told Creamer Media TV while sharing what is in his biography BENNI, which was released early this month.

“Every day, you walk out and go, you don’t know if you are going to come back because the rival gangs were quite close to each other and gunshots was the norm.

“It was normal life for us and you had to have eyes behind your back so it kind of laid my awareness high because if you switch off for one minute, you get a stray bullet in the forehead or in between your eyes.

“That was life growing up there but besides the gang violence it was amazing. We used to play sports, all kinds…tennis, rugby, cricket, football on the streets so it helped you stay active and fit. It was able to help me sharpen my craft, my football skills to become better,” he shared, explaining how staying away from gangs made him a better player.

However, that alone was not enough and McCarthy says things would still have been different had his father Dudley McCarthy not been a disciplinarian.

“Regular school students but my dad was very strict, if he hears anything wrong from us, mingling with gang members and you get a beating for a week, sometimes two weeks on the trot. Every day he comes back from work, and it perfects you,” he added.

“It kind of taught you discipline because when all your friends are doing something it is only normal that every kid follows that path but my dad instilled a little bit of discipline. It kept you on the part where you just played football and other friends that do not join the gang members and it taught me good values.”

McCarthy rose from the gang-infected area to the grandest stages of world football, playing for European giants like Ajax Amsterdam and FC Porto as well as in the English Premier League with Blackburn Rovers.

He won titles in the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, including the UEFA Champions League, the only South African to have lifted the prestigious trophy to date.

McCarthy is South Africa’s all-time top scorer and has since coached Cape Town City, AmaZulu, worked at Manchester United as the club’s attacking coach before beginning his stint as Harambee Stars boss last March.