Bolton Wanderers defender Max Conway is hoping the fact his grandmother was born in South Africa could see him win a Bafana Bafana call-up.
The 23-year-old left-back is English-born and playing in the Championship this season, after helping his club win promotion from League One, but says he has his heart set on representing South Africa.
SuperSport.com had an exclusive interview with Conway.
ON HIS BEGINNINGS
“I started at Bolton when I was just seven years old. And then worked my way up through the academy, and then started as an apprentice when I turned 16. It was very good for me. I'd recommend it for any young player, especially in the English pyramid. It works well for you to be able to climb the pyramids. So, yeah, it was really good for me.”
ON ESTABLISHING HIMSELF AND WINNING PROMOTION
“It was really special. Obviously, I came into the season last year hoping to play games, but wasn't too sure if I was going to be playing many games here at Bolton. But managed to play pretty much most of the minutes when I was available. I had a short injury, but not too long, and then to top it off by winning promotion to the Championship was such an amazing feeling. It's an amazing feeling, especially the way we did it, winning at Wembley in the playoffs. I wouldn't say there's a massive difference between League One and the Championship. The quality is a little bit better, and the tempo and the intensity of the game is quite a bit higher, but I think I and the team have adapted really well so far, and yeah, hopefully we continue to do well.”
ON HIS ATTRIBUTES
“The best part of my game is probably my attackingness from deep. So I'm an attacking fullback, and I'd say like my superpower or my main strength is driving with the ball, running with the ball, beating players. I'm on set pieces too. Depending on the team, if there's a winger who's a good set piece taker as well, who's left-footed. But it varies. To be fair, I've been on some set pieces, yeah. It's a big thing in football. Everyone's after left-footed players, so it's definitely an advantage, especially if you have a good left foot as well.”
ON HIS CLUB AMBITIONS
“Hopefully, just do as well as possible and retain our place in the Championship for next season. And of course, we need to build on last season and push ourselves as much as we can to reach that goal. Bolton are a huge club. When I go out and about, there are always Bolton fans everywhere. There was a bit of a dip financially with the club, which sent them down to the lower leagues, but since a change in ownership, the club's been on a rise ever since.”
ON SOUTH AFRICAN CONNECTIONS
Yeah, so my grandma was born in Pretoria, South Africa. So that's always been a big part of my life ever since I was young. She would talk about South Africa and what an amazing place it was. I really enjoyed watching South Africa at the World Cup. They were one of the most enjoyable teams to watch, with how much they were attacking, the games were definitely entertaining. If the timing's right with South Africa, then I'd love to play for South Africa. It's always been a thing that I wanted to do, especially with my family and to make my grandmother proud would be a special thing as well.”
ON PLAYING AGAINST ORLANDO PIRATES
“It was in Marbella in a training camp last year. It was a really good experience. I was very impressed with their players. They were very good, and of course there was a bit of attention before it with me being South African around that. There was a reporter in Bolton who found out I had South African links, so he put it out ahead of the Pirates game, and yeah, it all stemmed from that, really.”