‘I still want to play for Bafana’
KICK OFF: How have you settled back in England?
Dean Furman: It was always going to be difficult coming back for a number of reasons. The first is that once you get over 30, it becomes very tough because clubs are looking for younger players who have a sellon value. Once you get to my age your sellon value significantly diminishes. I am 32 and a lot of clubs are just not interested for that reason. The other thing is I was away from the UK for a long, long time. Are managers here really watching the PSL? No they are not, so they don’t know the league. Then you have to throw in the pandemic, where clubs over here are heavily reliant on match-day revenue, be it ticket sales, merchandise from the club shop or hospitality [at games]. Since the pandemic has begun, clubs have not been able to bring in any money, so I can’t tell you how many very good footballers here have not got jobs right now. They will likely have to consider other lines of work. It is incredibly frightening at the moment.
How did the move to Carlisle United come about?
The manager, Chris Beech, remembered me from five years ago before I went to South Africa. He invited me to come down for a
