Name: Abongile Baleni
Age: 31
Hometown: East London, Eastern Cape
Watching his father cry in disappointment and express absolute delight in a space of 120 plus minutes was enough to prompt him to the wonderful and fascinating world of sport.
Abongile Baleni’s father broke down in tears while watching the 2005 Uefa Champions League final between his beloved Liverpool and AC Milan. The Reds lagged 0-3 behind at halftime only to make a comeback and win the title on penalties. This was enough to get Abongile to want to tell stories about the sport.
“That was the first time I saw my dad cry, within the next 20 minutes, Liverpool scored three goals and equalised. I saw my dad have so much joy.
"This thing has the ability to make my hero cry and then become happy in one sitting and I wanted to do that for others. That is when I truly fell in love with this amazing concept (sport), that was the moment that I was born,” he explains.
ANOTHER SHOT
This is not Abongile’s first shot at joining the World of Champions family. In 2015 SuperSport hosted open auditions for commentators for the second season of DStv Diski Challenge, formerly the Multichoice Diski Challenge.
He says the SuperSport MVP Talent Search is a chance that he was not going to miss after having worked on his craft for the last 10 years.
“I started trying to get into SuperSport in 2015 through the commentary search and got through the second round. That sparked my interest in broadcasting especially towards sport.
"Unfortunately I only made it into the second round of that competition. I spent the next 10 years crafting my skills as a broadcaster, so when I saw the opportunity to try again after that first heartbreak, I had to go back,” he says.