Print Solutions September 2006
off Hours
A Kick Out of the Past
 
| Years before Rafiq Hassan (pictured, above)
was general manager at Suncoast Marketing Inc., in Boca Raton,
Fla., he played first division soccer for various teams in the
South African Football Association and won several titles and
gold medals. |
Rafiq Hassan of Suncoast Marketing Inc.
recalls his days as a pro soccer player in South Africa
This summer an average TV audience of 93
million viewers watched each match of the World Cup. In Boca
Raton, Fla., one soccer fan in particular, Rafiq Hassan, had
tuned in to see which team – France or Italy –
would win the final game in the tournament.
“I had wanted England to win at
first,” admits Hassan, the general manager of Suncoast
Marketing Inc., Ft. Lauderdale. “But when it came down to
the finals, I was pulling for France even though they lost. I
thought they had more heart.”
He would know. In a past life, long before
his days as a general manager at the distributorship in
Florida, Hassan was a professional soccer or football player
(as the sport is called by most of the world) in his native
South Africa. For 16 years, he played first division soccer for
various teams in the South African Football Association,
earning three gold medals in the South African Cup and two
league titles, as well as sponsorships from companies such as
Adidas. This was all while Hassan managed to become one of the
first players to integrate the sport during apartheid –
the systematic racial segregation that was enforced in South
Africa from 1948 to 1994.
Hassan says he began playing soccer when he
was 6-years-old and went professional when he was 14. He says
when he first started playing the game there was a white league
and a non-white league. “I had to play for the non-white
league,” he says.
That all changed in the 1970s when soccer
became one of the first sports in South Africa to integrate.
“I was chosen to be one of the few players to move to the
white league,” he says. “But it was hard playing in
South Africa. Even though you could play on the same field, the
way we socialized was much different.”
The players were constantly reminded that
even though the sport was integrated, the rest of South Africa
was not. This fact became even more apparent when the teams
traveled to play games. “The white players would stay at
the whites-only hotels while we had to stay somewhere
else,” Hassan says.
He said even though there were obvious
social divisions between teammates because of apartheid, the
players wouldn’t let it interfere with how they worked as
a team. “We did it for desire, for respect for the game,
for the love for the game,” he says.
Hassan says he eventually decided to end
his professional soccer career because “I just got too
old. I got too many injuries.” He decided to work for
R.J. Nabisco and later moved to the United States with his
family. “I left South Africa because of apartheid,”
he says. “I didn’t want my kids to go through what
I went through.” Hassan returned briefly to his homeland
10 years ago but “it’s not the same. When I was
there, all I wanted to do was get back to the United States.
This is my home now.”
He’s happy to enjoy his days in
Florida with his wife, Ferial Hassan, director of human
resources at Suncoast Marketing Inc., and proudly watch the
budding music careers of his daughters, Adela and Liyah, who he
admits have not inherited their father’s soccer gene.
“They’re recording artists. They haven’t one
bit of athleticism in them,” he says with a laugh.
Unfortunately, most of Hassan’s
mementos of the old days—pictures and videos of him on
the soccer field— were lost during Hurricane Andrew. But
he is still able to share his experiences through coaching. He
has coached two professional teams in the United Systems of
Independent Soccer Leagues (USISL). He also has coached kids
through the Soccer Association of Boca Raton. “Some of
those kids have gone on to get soccer scholarships at Duke,
Harvard and Boston College,” he says.
And the next time Hassan tunes into the
World Cup in 2010, he can see the games played in South Africa,
the country chosen by Fédération Internationale
de Football Association (FIFA) to host the tournament that
year.
“When it comes to soccer, South
Africa is the fourth biggest crowd draw in the world,”
Hassan says. “People go crazy for it down
there.”
—LaShell Stratton
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