Social media has opened a slew of opportunities for people.
Back in the day, after retiring, footballers would generally move into coaching, TV commentating, or punditry.
For former Orlando Pirates midfielder Mike Morton, social media has presented greener pastures, albeit still within the sport he’s played most of his life.
Such is the greenery on these pastures, that Morton is a nominee at this year’s TikTok Awards Sub-Saharan Africa in two categories: Sports Creator of the Year and Storyteller of the Year.
When asked about his nomination for the TikTok awards, Morton says the overwhelming feeling is that of surprise.
“Humbled as well, I didn’t realise it was TikTok awards for the whole of Africa, or Sub-Saharan Africa, which for me is massive considering how massive the African continent is,” Morton tells The Citizen.
“Completely caught off guard…and I didn’t think at the age of 36 I’d be calling myself a TikToker. It’s amazing, and I’m humbled to be honest.”
@mikemortontalksfootball The Current State of South African Football! The complex game of musical chairs being played out in South African football. With Royal Am the latest club being put up for sale, I do a deep dive into the history of South African football and all the chnages that have occured over the last 10-15 years. It's WILD! #sportsontiktok #africanfootball #psl
This year’s awards will highlight the extraordinary ways content creators have engaged, inspired, and connected communities on and off TikTok.
The awards will be hosted in early December in Joburg.
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Mike Morton after football
Morton has had a career that spans more than 15 years in the top flight. He joined Cape Town Spurs, the club he last played for, in the 2022-23 season. This was before the club earned promotion to the top-flight.
Throwing in a chuckle, Morton says, very seldom do South African footballers retire in the true sense.
“It’s sort of, your career ends when the next person doesn’t wanna sign you, and in my case, it was…it came to a point where moving out of the Western Cape wasn’t really an option with my family,” he says about how he reached the decision to hang up his boots.
“I don’t want to move them around anymore, so when I parted ways with Cape Town Spurs, there wasn’t really another option in the Western Cape.”
@mikemortontalksfootball Club football is back.. 🕺🎉 #sportsontiktok #psl ♬ original sound – Mike Morton Talks Football
This paucity of playing options in the Western Cape led him to put more effort into the social media space.
“It gave me the rocket fuel I needed to kick into gear and really put my head down, and I think I’m reaping the rewards now.”
Mike Morton Talks Football
Morton says he went into content creation with the hope and desire that he’d be able to monetise it somehow.
“Whether that would be just a side-hustle or something I did in my spare time because I love doing it anyway. I wouldn’t say I was completely doing it for fun, I definitely did see the possibilities,” shares the former Amazulu midfielder.
@mikemortontalksfootball Bafana Bafana Preliminary AFCON squad 🇿🇦 No major surprises.. but some younger guys might be making the trip to gain some experience. Thoughts? Any surprise omissions? #bafanabafana #afcon #sportsontiktok ♬ original sound – Mike Morton Talks Football
He says he has been a fan of lanky English striker Peter Crouch, former Manchester United captain Gary Neville and Jamie Carragher, who found a new lease of life after their playing careers through broadcasting, though Neville did have a disastrous attempt at coaching.
“In terms of what they’ve done post-career, where they didn’t follow the traditional coaching path, they chose to go into punditry or podcasting or whatever, I did see that and looked at the South African market, and no one was really doing that, not ex-players anyway. The majority of our content creation or information coming out is mainly from our journalists, so I felt there was a gap there, so I pursued it.”
Prior to launching his platform on TikTok, Morton hadn’t been on traditional media platforms such as SuperSport or SABC Sport.
He says he enjoys doing things on his platform; however, he isn’t closed off to the idea of lending his knowledge of the game to the aforementioned platforms.
“The punditry is an avenue I would like to pursue at some point, but at the same time I feel like to be a really good pundit, it takes a lot of experience to be in front of the camera and to be opinionated and to choose your words wisely, something that takes a lot of skill and experience and I feel like I don’t wanna dive in it straight away, I’d rather develop my voice outside of the game and build it up that way and if it happens organically, then that’s cool.”
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Content creation vs playing career
Juxtaposing his playing career with his role as a content creator, Morton says the latter is lonelier than being part of a team.
“Social media, the way I do it is very much a one-man show at the moment; I edit, I shoot, I’m the creative…so it can be lonely at times but also rewarding because all the work you put in you reap.”
“Obviously, in football, you can only train three, two hours a day, [but] when you are your own boss and building your own brand and own platform, then you only get out what you put in.
At the time of publishing, Morton’s TikTok channel, the Mike Morton Talks Football, has just below half a million followers, his X account is just over 56 000 followers, and his Facebook page sits on the edge of 500 000.
“That number [on TikTok] can be mind-blowing sometimes when I think about it,” he says, adding that he’s still surprised that so many people enjoy his content.
“I’m very grateful because they’ve allowed me to create a career out of this, and the engagement and responses to the content [are] honestly phenomenal. When I go to stadiums, when I see fans, and they tell me how much they love it.”
“It’s when you meet up with people who say that they weren’t necessarily watching or interested in the PSL [Premier Soccer League] until they came across my content, which to me is the biggest compliment I’ve received.”
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