Interview by Zac Welshman
Image by Nathan Cracknell
Balancing life with football can be tough at the best of times. But when you throw in the added pressures of university studies, a relegation battle, and the painstaking road to recovery that comes from an ACL injury, that challenge becomes all the more difficult.
Simba Kudyiwa is learning on the job and trying to strike the perfect balance between the two as he spends his weekdays studying in quiet library rooms, and his weekends battling for three points. We caught up with the young centre-back to find out a little bit more about how he does it.
Simba you’ve taken time out of your reading week to chat to us, can you tell us a little bit more about your studies and how you balance pursuing a degree with your football career?
I’m at the University of Kent at Canterbury, studying Sports Therapy and Rehab. It can be difficult [to balance], the commute is pretty far and when I was at Met Police FC I was working part-time at Tesco, so I’d just go to work and then go training, I didn’t have to pay too much attention to the work and I could focus on football. But now I’m in my second year at university so it’s a big year, I’ve got to pay equal [attention] to them both.
It can’t be too one-sided because otherwise, you can lose interest. I’ve had to balance my time, travelling to London two or three times a week, especially for Tuesday night games, when I get back at around 1 or 2am, and I’ve got lectures in the morning. So finding the balance is the most important thing. But I try to keep football and university separate. Football is still what I want to do in my life, so naturally I’m going to pay attention to the opportunity I’ve been given at Casuals and see how that goes.
It’s perhaps less common these days to see religious footballers, but you’re a devout Christian. How does your faith play a part in how you approach both life and football?
I feel like with the things that I’ve been through in my life, it would have been easy to go down the route of thinking, “Why is God doing this to me?” But my mum is the biggest source of faith and she breathes that into me and my little brother. So faith is definitely a big part of life. Before games, I always say a little prayer for God to protect me on the pitch, and outside as well I still keep in touch with my religion and my faith.
In my life, there have been a lot of obstacles – I had a bad knee injury, I got released by Watford when I was 15, and at home my mum isn’t well. With all of these things, especially growing up and seeing my mum sick, you have to channel it into something positive. I believe everything happens for a reason, and having that mindset with my faith as well has helped me a lot.
What was it like to suffer that bad knee injury during such an important time for your development?
It was challenging, when you’ve been playing football for so long and you get an injury that not a lot of people come back from, it’s scary. It’s like, “Am I even going to come back the same?” So battling those obstacles has been a challenge. Two months after starting my first year of university, I had my ACL surgery, so that whole year I was just doing rehab, but I knew if I wanted to get back to football, I had to be on top of that rehab.
It's your first season with Corinthian-Casuals and there’s no denying that it’s been a difficult one. What are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced during your debut campaign?
This is my first full season back in about two years, so adjusting to the routine, I’d say. The schedule comes quite thick and fast, I kind of forgot that to be honest! Obviously adapting to new surroundings as well. I joined in November, so I didn’t really have a pre-season, I came in and I just had to meet that level straight away, so that was difficult, but I’m just grateful to be here. I didn’t expect to be playing at this level post-injury straight away.
You’re a young player and, as you said, it’s your first full season in a while. How are you finding being back at this level, do you feel the added responsibility of playing for a club that is so intertwined with footballing history?
Yeah, 100 per cent. You know, in terms of the fans, there’s a presence, and you feel the fans here. When I was at Aldershot we had a friendly against Portsmouth and there were about 2000 people there, I can hand on heart say, there might not be 2000 Casuals fans there but it feels like that sometimes, you feel a sense of the support behind you.
And you’ve been one of the mainstays in an everchanging backline this season, how has that been for you?
It has been difficult, I’ll be honest. But it helps when you get on with people outside of the pitch, me and Reuben [Collins], have this thing where every game day, it’s war – we’re at war again, we’re tackling and winning our headers. But when people come in and out, it’s like, “What does this guy play like, does he go up for headers, does he shy away from it?” So it can be difficult. But when people come along, I’ve just got to learn quickly what they’re like and I’m learning how other people play so it helps me massively.
You’ve been one of the first names on the team sheet this season. Aside from your ability, is there anything that you’re showing the manager that makes you such an important part of his squad?
When I came in, one of the first things the gaffer said to me was that he wants a defender, someone who’s going to win headers, make blocks, and is hungry to defend. For my whole life, even when I was at Watford, one thing people would say about me is that I just love to defend. So that’s what I’m here to do.
You obviously love playing at one end of the pitch, but you scored your first senior goal in a 2-1 defeat to Bognor Regis Town back in January, what was that like for you?
It was a weird experience. I always joke around with my friends and say, “When I score, I’m going to do this celebration or that celebration,” but when you do it, everything just goes out of your head. I just ran to the corner flag! It was a different feeling, I’ve scored in academy football, l but in men’s football with three points on the line, it was definitely different.
It’s weird to say, but if someone else was to score that goal and we’d have seen that game out, maybe even having picked up a point, I’d have been happier. My friends all said, “Oh you’ve scored, you’ve scored” and I just thought, I’d have rather kept a clean sheet and got three points.
Speaking of clean sheets, the first of the season came against Canvey Island in a 0-0 draw in late February. Did you feel the relief after that?
That was a good feeling. After the game it was a bit bittersweet because we felt like we should’ve won the game. We’re not going to complain because at the end of the day if you don’t concede you don’t lose. But we all saw that game as a stepping stone, we saw it as the foundation to go on and pick up some more points.
I have the faith and the confidence that once it clicks, we can build momentum and go on a run in a positive direction. Coming from the difficulties that I’ve had over the last year or so, I’m happy to be here, but for me it’s not enough – I want to have an impact and to look back and say, “We did it.”
