JACK MILNER
I suppose at the end of it all most footballers want to represent a country, no matter what country that may be.
Of course, we have Dean Furman who has lived almost all of his life in the UK playing for Bafana while it was announced last weekend that Larry Cohen, who is a central defender for local team Moroka Swallows, will form part of the Lithuanian national squad which will play England later this month.
England is scheduled to play Lithuania in a Euro 2016 qualifier at the Wembley Stadium on Friday and the defender has been selected by the Lithuanian national selectors.
It was previously reported that the 27-year-old Johannesburg-born defensive player was issued a Lithuanian passport, possibly paving the way for a European move in the near future, which would make it easier for him to join a European club without having to apply for the usual work visa that affects most South Africans wishing to ply their trade overseas.
Hopefully this will happen because in September last year it was announced he would be moving to Israel to play for a first division team.
“Larry’s gone,” Swallows coach Zeca Marques was reported saying. “To lose a player like this would be a knock for any club, but we’ve granted Larry’s wish. He’s always wanted to play overseas and when the opportunity came up for him now, and their window closing shortly, we couldn’t say no to him.”
But just four days later they did just that!
Birds CEO Leon Prins announced they had cancelled the transfer due to the current situation at Dobsonville. “I’ve called him back and cancelled the transfer. We have suspension issues in defence and Savic has got an injury, we couldn’t afford to lose another centre-back at this point. He agreed to come back and I’m really happy about that,” said Prins.
On November 21 last year, Larry’s application to reinstate his Lithuanian nationality was approved and he became a Lithuanian citizen. He received his first call-up for the Lithuanian national football team but Fifa did not allow him to play for Lithuania. However, that all seems to have been sorted out.
Larry has a great soccer pedigree. He is the son of Martin Cohen who played for Highlands Park in the 1970s. Martin was a flamboyant player in his day and he was also a member of the racially mixed South African team which played against Argentina in an unofficial match.
Martin also played in the US where he was a teammate of the late, great George Best.
Larry started his professional career at Jomo Cosmos in 2007 and stayed there until 2010 when he moved to Wits for a year. He moved around to a couple of other clubs, but in 2013 joined Swallows and has been there ever since.
In an interview with City Press two years ago Larry admitted he had not seen his father play but said he would be happy if he could be half of what he is told his father was during his playing days.
He said Cohen senior has been influential in his career. “My dad is my hero,” he said. But he was quick to add his father did not force him to take up the sport. “It was an instant decision. But my father has guided me in the right direction although it has always been my choice to play football.”
“I’m under no pressure to emulate my dad. I am a different player to him. I don’t think Messi is as great as Maradona because they played in different times and the same applies to me.”
Meanwhile, Doncaster Rovers FC midfielder Furman has been excused from international duty for South Africa at his club’s request.
Bafana coach Shakes Mashaba said: “We have called up 30 players and have covered every position, so we will not replace any of those who are unable to come to camp. I think it is also a blessing in disguise in that we will be able to test out the players we have called-up – for instance Dean has been playing with Andile [Jali] in the middle of the park, so it would be great to see who else could fill in that role. To be frank we would have loved to have all players available but seeing it is not possible we have to move on.
“Also on the question of Dean, we have accepted the request because we want to build relations with these clubs. It is important that when they have a request like this we should consider it favourably because in future we will be the ones needing to make a request to these clubs.”
