Nato denies quitting, won�t apologise
Thato Kala | Wednesday October 15, 2014 15:20
His agent Paul Mitchell categorically announced the player was quitting international football yesterday following a misunderstanding with the coach Peter Butler.
Despite repeated insistence from both the player and his agent that Nato would not speak to the press, the former Bidvest Wits and Mpumalanga Black Aces told South Africa media that he was unhappy, but had not retired.
“I have not retired. I am just not happy that there are allegations that have been made about me. But I have not retired,” he is quoted as saying.
Butler suspended the player for allegedly arriving in camp intoxicated, something the player and his management strongly denied.
There have been suggestions the player trained drunk. His agent, Paul Mitchell said there was no way his client would apologise, as demanded by Butler, “because he did nothing wrong.
“He is retiring from international football. We know he was suspended from camp and there has been accusations thrown at him,” said Mitchell.
He said he absolutely agreed with his player’s decision although he believed representing one’s national team is of paramount importance.
Mitchell said Nato had acquired the required caps to play in Europe where he was recently signed by defending Spanish La Liga champions Atletico Madrid and loaned to the Indian club.
He explained: “Why would this affect him? If he’s doing well he’s doing well. It’s a decision he believes is best at this stage. It has been a week now since he was suspended, there has been no communication from the association or anyone nor has there been an inquiry.”
A clearly irate Mitchell told Mmegi Sport all he had received was an sms from Butler notifying him of his client’s suspension.
“I received a message from Butler that the player had been suspended, that’s all.”
He argued that Butler’s suspension was unjustifiable considering no inquiry or proper investigation was done.
Mitchell said he was also unhappy about accusations levelled against him that he had told the player to cause problems and be chucked out of camp so he could return to India and play his club’s opening League game.
“The accusations put at me that I told Nato to cause problems, we don’t take them lightly.”
Interestingly, Nato immediately returned to his Indian Super League side Atletico de Kolkata, a feeder side to Atletico Madrid, and played the full 90 minutes as they won 3-0 over Mumbai City at the weekend.
Nato was yellow carded in that game for a crude tackle, but Mitchell was happy with his client’s start to life in India.
Mitchell said he expected Butler to give the player a chance to defend himself.
“Ofentse has his side of the story, the coach has his and he will not apologise for something he did not do. The boy needs to be able to defend himself.”
Mitchell made it clear he did not buy stories of Nato being drunk at training. He questioned why the player was never stopped during the session that is said to have lasted about an hour.
“My loyalty lies with Nato; he has never given me trouble in South Africa, India or in Spain.” said Mitchell.
He further suggested there were people bent on destroying his client’s career and warned Butler to be careful when dealing with players.
Butler also had to go to Cairo without Mogakolodi Ngele after the player walked out of camp on Saturday.
Mitchell went on to defend Nato’s decision to immediately leave for India after the suspension.
Indications are that the player was later summoned by the Zebras’ technical team but had already left.
“When you are suspended what do you do? You go home. So Nato did exactly that and played for his club on Sunday,” he said.
“You (Botswana) are not qualifying for AFCON, so it’s not like he is jeopardising the country’s chances of qualifying by retiring,” Mitchell added.