Fans of Des Backos can rest assured that the soccer star of the 1970s has not changed much. The man who caused so much joy to his fans by running rings around his opponents still has ”mood-enhancing” as part of his repertoire — he runs a liquor store.
Next door to the store, in Savoy Estate in north-east Johannesburg, is his paint shop. They are less than 1km from the shopping centre that stands on the site of some of Backos’s greatest triumphs — Balfour Park stadium.
Backos burst on to the soccer scene in 1968, wearing the jersey of Highlands Park. A colourful career spanning almost two decades saw him wear the Rangers and Hellenic jerseys too, before trying his luck abroad.
He had a stint with the Los Angeles Aztecs and later with Stoke City, before returning to South Africa, where he became player-manager at Rangers.
When the game went non-racial in 1978, Backos’s skills made him a hero across the race divide. He was nicknamed ”Soweto” by township dwellers who sometimes cared more for artistic brilliance than the scoreline.
Had South Africa been part of the sporting world during this era, instead of being the polecat it was because of its apartheid policies, Backos would have walked into the national team.
As one of the first to be part of deracialised soccer, he is angry about the race quotas debated today. ”Why should anyone be in the team because of their colour? It’s shit,” he told the Mail & Guardian this week. ”I accept that it is harder for a white player because he has to get into the culture thing, but soccer is soccer.
”Look at David Beckham. He was the darling of Manchester United, but he had to prove himself when he went to Real Madrid. A player must produce the goods.” Backos clearly still has the fiery temper he displayed as a player.
Backos blames the gradual stayaway of fans of the former (white) National Football League for causing the demise of what once were powerful soccer institutions — Highlands Park, Rangers, Durban City and Arcadia Shepherds. (Shepherds have been revived and play in the second division.)
Backos is no longer involved in soccer — he barely even watches local games on TV. He blames poor refereeing and the inertia that he says has arrested football’s development in the 15 years since he quit.
He was not interested in coaching when his career as a player came to an end. ”Just because one is a fair player does not mean that he will be a good coach. I could have used my name and people would say ‘He is Des Backos, he must know what he is talking about’, but it wouldn’t really be true.”
What is true, as he reluctantly admits, is that he would have staked a strong claim for a team jersey in the national squad.
But, he says, ”It is not fair to compare myself with present-day strikers. A striker is only as good as the support he gets. But, yes, I think I was good enough to compete [with the present bunch].”
He certainly had his fans in the old days. ”I always had young kids wanting to touch me, it was great.”
It was not always easy, though. ”We used to play in shitty little grounds that were not good enough for professional soccer. We sometimes played in stadiums where there were no toilets, let alone toilet paper. Most of the time we never even changed at the stadium — we would change at the hotel and come to the stadium ready to play.”
He doesn’t play any longer. ”I am scared I’ll break a leg or something. I am 52 now. I play golf and bowls every Sunday. During the week I work like a bastard. I can only reminisce and, like all of us, sometimes wish I was young again.”
Backos is now a businessman and family man. But the painted portrait of him as a player and a gallery of photographs from the 1994 Soccer World Cup, as well as a Cats sticker on his phone, show what is dear to his heart.