Unfinished business
It is now more than 20 years ago since Bevan Fransman made his Premier Soccer League debut and even as he approaches his 37th birthday, there is a steely determination to keep going.
Now mong the longest serving players in the PSL, Fransman does not have any immediate retirement plans, although his contract is at an end.
“For me, even before lockdown, the plan was to continue next season. I think the condition I find myself in, body wise, even fitness wise, I’m still in good shape, despite the 36 years in my legs! Before the Christmas break I didn’t feature much but after it, I came back into the team and I played eight, nine successive games without any blemishes.
“I’m in the same boat with a lot of other players where everything has been put on pause with these circumstances. Negotiations would normally have started for next season but now I think not many people are making plans until they see what happens,” he said, even as the lockdown began to ease.
Fransman was 16 years, six months and one day old when he was drafted into the defence of already relegated Mother City for their fourth-last match of the 1999-2000 season.
It was May 1, 2000 and the club, born out of the merger that also spawned Ajax Cape Town, were headed out of existence almost as quickly as they had arrived.
A run of 13 successive league losses condemned them to being the worst
