A Scottish Man on a South African journey

Murray: "I always feel like that's what I want to do - work hard and enjoy my football."

Simon Murray/Goal.com

"I think my first football memory was just playing with my dad, he built a football pitch in the garden."

Sounds good, doesn't it? That is where the story of Simon Murray, a Scottish man on a South African journey, begins - in his backyard.

The 26-year-old's dad, Gary Murray, is a former footballer who boasted an impressive career with Scottish clubs, Montrose and Hibernian. "He played professional football as well and that's one of my first memories of football, just playing around with him in the garden." An ideal father and son relationship one could say, bonding over the game, and who knew that at this moment, a professional football player would be inspired and groomed in the years to come.

Born-and-bred in Dundee, Murray talks fondly of his childhood and his extended family of half brothers and sisters, "I have siblings, but it's more of an extended family of half brothers and sisters; three brothers and two sisters. I think I enjoyed my childhood," he said. "I enjoy Scotland, it's a nice place. It's obviously a lot different to here in terms of climate and way of living I suppose."

Life is about taking every good opportunity as it comes in order to improve your life the best way you can and that's what the Scotland-native did. He decided to get out of his comfort zone, leaving everything that he knew to embark on a new journey. "There's always more to see in the world and that's why I took the opportunity to come here. But growing up was great, I had good friends around me and I enjoyed living here. I still miss it but I am having an exciting adventure here so you know Scotland won't move."

Simon Murray/HibsTV

We discussed a lot about his childhood and his fond memories, but the one important aspect of the interview was where it really began for him having been a part of a few youth clubs back in his home country. Murray was part of clubs such as Dundee Celtic Boys, Dee Club, and Dundee United Social; one of them was even run by his dad (coincidence much). Listening to his story, it almost sounds similar to every other footballer growing up, but you also pick up some vast differences like how football was more of fun and games as a child and wasn't really taken seriously. He says for him, it was more a game where you meet your friends at the park and have a good time - little did he know that the seed had been already planted despite it not being as serious when he was a young boy.

"In fact, my dad ran the club that I joined (Dundee United Social). It was enjoyable and mostly it was for fun and nothing too serious like professional football at that age but it was good and I enjoyed it so much. I can say those were the best years of my life playing football.

"That's where you really fall in love with football at that stage when you play as a kid. When you get older, you start taking it more seriously but when you are young, you go to the park meet the boys - it was good.

"I always used to win a lot of the stuff and that always made it a bit better. I enjoyed my football from when I was young and I still have some of my best friends that I used to play with in these teams and it still hasn't changed so it's good," as he told The L.A Dosage.

As the chat progresses, we know that it was an enjoyable part of his childhood and even better, his dad was also involved in the realm of things but we tried to dig deeper as to where it really kickstarted for him; because as a footballer there has to come a time where you feel like this could be it for you - a career could come out of all these fun and games with your friends - a meaningful purpose some would say. Murray being down to earth as an individual, you can hear that he doesn't mince his words but the passion speaks for itself to a point you can even imagine yourself growing up with him and his friends in Dundee during that era.

Simon Murray/The Times

The way he speaks about football and his childhood - combined - makes you feel like a kid again and want to run to the park with your friends without a worry in the world; because what else really matters at that age when you are surrounded by people that you love. He mentions somewhere along the interview that he always knew that he wanted to become professional ever since he could kick a ball and that is where our excitement kicked in. It almost felt like winning machines at the casino going off in that very moment. Supposedly that's what every journalist goes through when they get their moment of glory because we just wanted to know when he knew that football would be an ideal career for him. There were some great pearls of wisdom when he mentioned during that period; your character is built, not necessarily your career when you are around people you love like family and friends.

"Well when I was young I always wanted to be a footballer and you always make sure of that; you just idolised football from when you were young, and since I could kick a ball I wanted to make it professional and that's all I knew.

"At that age, it was more just for fun so wouldn't say it started there even though I always knew I wanted to be a footballer, and by then you had some players who were good and some not so good. I think that's where you build your character, your personality, not your career; when you are around people and your friends."

The interesting bits start to unravel and it the interview fast forwards to the beginning of his senior career, well basically the beginning of what would now be an amazing career as a footballer and an adventure to a whole new world. In this part, Murray speaks with excitement but there's also some sadness which most athletes can attest to during some time of their career. This is a player whose father was a prominent name on the Scottish football scene, it should be easy right with some guidance from home? Not so fast. Nothing comes easy, and we all go through some storms in life but it's how they mould you after the rainbow has come out.

So we got into the nitty-gritty and Simon says, "There's a thing in the semi league back home, it's called junior football but it's not junior football - it's semi-professional so you are playing against men so my first team was a team in the junior Scottish Division so like semi-professional football. I came to follow in love with football; I felt like I had growing pains in my legs, I was struggling to run and stuff like that. I had like shin splints. I kind of gave up on the idea of football when I was at Tayport. At this stage I was at Montrose but I went to Tayport from Montrose and I was with Montrose for about a season before going to Tayport and I was scoring goals for fun from the first day of season already and then I had the problem in my legs so I decided to go to Australia for a year.

Simon Murray/Daily Record

"When I came back from Australia, my dad's best friend, John McGlashan who played professional football who was an uncle to me and he was like "look, Simon, come back to my team" which was Tayport "and I will get you into a professional team by the start of next season" so I went to the team where he was at and so they were at the bottom of the league and in the first 8 games I had scored about 15 goals and we finished mid-table and the team didn't get relegated. And then I went to Arbroath which was my first professional club and I scored like 20 goals in the first 6 months of the season and then it was Dundee United which was a 2-and-a-half year contract so obviously I played there in the Premier League.

"In the first year, I never really played and Dundee United was probably one of the top four biggest teams in Scotland at the time, they were finishing third and fourth every year. So basically, they got relegated and in that year when I had just started with them, I never played much because I was still new to professional football but then the next season I played for them and it was good and went on to score about 20 goals for Dundee United. After that, I went to Hibs (Hibernian) where I had signed a pre-contract and that was the best year I'd had in football playing against the likes of Rangers and scoring against them. We finished fourth in the league but yeah it was good. Then I signed for Wits (Bidvest)," he told The L.A Dosage.

Talk about an outstanding career the man has had after overcoming those growing pains in his legs and the frustration he experienced as a footballer but it doesn't end there - He signs for a South African football team, Bidvest Wits.

We've gone through his childhood and budding career in Scotland and his time in Australia but how does it come about that he would be packing his bags; and not to the next club in his country but to another continent that is Africa? An entirely different climate to what he has been exposed to his entire life and our way of living here is not exactly the same.

"So an agent got in contact with me and said "look the team (Wits) is interested in taking you and signing you" so obviously I looked at the league and thought it was a great opportunity to come over and do well and score goals which they don't have a lot of in this league so yeah obviously its an early start and I've scored some goals.

"I thought I would have started playing a lot quicker but I think we've done it the right way in getting me used to the climate, the altitude and stuff like that. Three goals from the start are not too bad considering the minutes I have played is decent enough so let's see with the upcoming weeks and what happens. I want to score as many goals as I can.

"I feel happy, I feel comfortable and you know when you are moving countries you are pretty much, moving house and you have to sort out visas and stuff like that but the club sorted that out and they have been so helpful. I couldn't ask for more help from people around the club.

"The way they have treated me has been brilliant but people should know you are not only coming to play football. There is so much to sort even sorting out things like a mobile phone in this country is a mission so I am settled now and I feel good. I like the place, the city is nice, the food is great so I am enjoying it. I feel good and I am hoping by then that I feel good off the pitch so I can play better on the pitch.

Simon Murray/psl.co.za

The Scottish player has been here since July and has been proving his worth to coach Gavin Hunt, the Bidvest Wits club and the local football fans respectively. We have seen what he can do given game time and getting used to the style of play - not forgetting the climate. I asked Murray about the vast difference in the South African and that of back home since he has been playing for about three moments and has gathered enough to make some judgment if we can say that.

"It's a hard one actually but what I have seen here is that there are a lot of technically great footballers, their technique is good whereas in Scotland and moreover in the UK, you'll see its more physical, the guys are bigger, the defenders are a bit rougher. I have come across some strong defenders here and it's more different in Scotland whereby the teams you go into where you get that the fans are different and here the passion (I don't know) it's more in a different way.

"It's more like a way of life back home, I mean you stick with the same team but on the football scale its different. The weather is different, there also is a lot of running here but when you get the weather sometimes it's far too hot for me (laughs). Don't get me wrong, I have played with some of the guys in the team and I think they can have a go in Europe," he said.

In the midsts of talking about the football back in his home country, we also had to chat about the fans as the fans are what make the team anywhere in the world. The game we love so much would not be what it is if it weren't for the die-hard fans. As told to The L.A Dosage: "so with fans, the African people are very friendly and the music is a big part of their life from what I have gathered. Back home the fans are obviously passionate about the team and they want them to win and you see here that the Chiefs and Pirates fans are big rivalries together with the Sundowns fans. I'd say back home it's more about aggression and very much cutthroat football. You can be a good player and have four good games and the minute you have a bad game then the fans don't like you but I still say I love the fans back home but maybe the fans here come to enjoy the game with their friends which is great and you can see it that they make a better noise (laughs).

Every footballer has goals and aspirations with the club they play for and South Africa is now Simon's home since he put his signature on the dotted line; we spoke about his aspirations with Bidvest Wits and will he continue to live here if given the opportunity, as he believes he has what it takes to help the team win some silverware after The Clever Boys won Absa Premiership back in the 2016/17 season, and what a season it was for them. They managed to finish eighth last year.

"I think the team has started really well but I still feel that the team hasn't reached the full potential that we can reach. There's definitely more to come from us but obviously, we need to keep working hard. I am just hoping we can win stuff with this team; some cups and maybe win the league. I mean it is there for us to take if we just work hard and keep up the task.

"We can definitely show up for this league and battle it up with other teams who are equally fighting for it. For me, I have come here and hopefully, I can do well. I want the young South African kids to watch and be able to look up to us as well. If given opportunity, I'll definitely stay, if I am still enjoying it that much and we are doing well. (laughs) I have a contract here to stay so hopefully I can live up to it.

"The league is good and stronger than what people think. I am also still learning as much as everybody else. We've got some big teams here and I think they are going to start attracting more teams from around the world. But I am here to just concentrate on me and my team and the other teams can do just whatever they like (laughs). And that is that!

Simon Murray/The Sowetan

As the interview came to a close, we briefly went back to his childhood and his dad, Gary Murray as the footballer and the impact he has on his current football career especially now that he is playing for a South African team; something that is new to both father and son. It was great to hear how fondly he spoke of his dad and the relationship they have. It's beautiful to visualise even if you haven't seen them both in person, in the way Murray junior expresses himself. "Yeah my Dad played, so the team I came from to Bidvest Wits was Hibs (Hibernian) and he played for them as well so just obviously when I was young he would show me all these football clips and tapes and give me tips but he was a dad that would give me advice but he wasn't pushy.

"Even if I had decided to pursue another sport, he was the type of dad who would have been happy because I am happy. As a pro footballer, when I needed advice he would give it and he still does but now it's a bit more critical. Like I phoned him after one of our games, and he said I wasn't that good and I thought I'd played well but I am glad he said because he knows what I am capable of and what I can do. On that particular day, I scored but I could've scored more goals but I wasn't having a good game; and even when we played in Cape Town despite scoring those two goals, he still said I wasn't that good. Yeah, he gives me tips, he wants me to do well, and he wants the team I am currently playing to do well.

"He actually watches the team back home, he's got the DSTV connection (laughs). He misses watching games live and obviously, he wishes he could come and watch them but it's too far for him to travel. I miss him watching the games live, we used to have a lot of good memories when I was playing for Hibs. We are still making memories except he's watching on the TV now."

Till next time. . .