Royal treatment rolled out for Best Brew team
Mqondisi Dube | Friday July 21, 2017 15:03
When six young men passionate about football walked into a pub at Broadhurst and purchased their favourite drink, Castle Lager, little did they know they had just moved a step closer to a dream trip to the Best Brew finals held in Rustenburg, South Africa recently.
The team made it to the Best Brew finals after defeating other sides in Botswana drawn from the Gaborone region.
The side, known as Mbeki FC, had won themselves a glamorous trip where they were pampered before they performed above expectations to reach the finals of the inaugural Best Brew League, sponsored by Kgalagadi Breweries Limited (KBL) through its brand Castle Lager.
The team was flown to the affluent suburb of Sandton in Johannesburg on Thursday, and for some it was an eye opening experience up in the skies.
Upon arrival in Sandton on a typical cold winter afternoon, the players were booked into the five star Sandton Sun, and due to a slight delay in flights, they missed a trip to the famous SAB World of Beer.
But that was quickly forgotten as the players, who joined their counterparts from four other countries; Lesotho, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe were treated to dinner and drinks at an upmarket eatery within Sandton.
On Friday morning, after breakfast, the team was taken on a guided tour of the world-class stadium, FNB in Soweto. The FNB Stadium hosted the opening and closing matches of the 2010 World Cup, the first on African soil.
After the FNB Stadium experience, the crew was driven to Rustenburg, where the tournament took place.
In line with rolling the red carpet, the players were booked at another five star hotel, the Royal Marang which housed the England team during the 2010 World Cup.
Football legends; Diphetogo Selolwane (Botswana), Brian Baloyi (South Africa), Emmanuel ‘Tico Tico’ Bucuane (Mozambique), Tinashe Nengomasha (Zimbabwe), Letlhogonolo Seema (Lesotho) and Rotson Kilambe (Zambia) were part of the travelling team. They, save for Bucuane, inspired the Five-A-Side teams from their respective countries.
The games began on Saturday morning amid a carnival atmosphere, with the organisers stating that the purpose was not necessarily about winning, but making friendships in line with Castle Lager’s tag line, ‘It all comes together with a Castle’. After two days of competition, and the Botswana team, ably led by Selolwane, reaching the finals, the team was transported back to Johannesburg for their flight back home.
The team’s captain, Tsaone Mokura hailed KBL for the Five-A-Side initiative and the trip.
“We had fun; we met people, we networked and we learnt quite a lot. This (Five-A-Side) is the best thing ever to happen. We met legends in the game and this is a brilliant idea. I am looking forward to the next trip here,” he said.
Other team members were Ookeditse Moyombane, Gaosotle Kelaotswe, Lebogang Jankie, Keafentse Ralephurwana and Boy Kelebogile.
KBL brand manager, Mpho Motlhabane was equally excited at how the inaugural Five-A-Side trip had penned out. “It has been a great experience. We intend to do activations countrywide in the next campaign and not only in Gaborone. The competition was exciting and achieved what we really wanted as a business in terms of what the brand stands for “it all comes together with a Castle Lager”.
The objective of the campaign is not who wins or who doesn’t; it’s about bringing people together, leveraging on their passion point, which is football.
It’s about making friends locally and internationally. It has been a life changing experience for our guys and the cherry on top was the team finishing second,” Motlhabane said.