{"id":685358,"date":"2026-05-21T14:58:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:58:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685358\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T14:58:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T14:58:10","slug":"chiefs-mccarthy-says-boxing-moldavia-trials-and-mental-coach-shaped-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/685358\/","title":{"rendered":"Chiefs\u2019 McCarthy says boxing, Moldavia trials and mental coach shaped him"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Story audio is generated using AI<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Defender <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/soccer\/2025-09-05-success-at-chiefs-motivates-mccarthy-even-more\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/soccer\/2025-09-05-success-at-chiefs-motivates-mccarthy-even-more\/\">Aden McCarthy<\/a>, arguably one of Kaizer Chiefs\u2019 best players this season, says boxing, trials in Moldavia and a mental specialist have helped shape his life and career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">The 22-year-old Chiefs youth development graduate was promoted to the first team in July 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">It took McCarthy, the son of erstwhile Amakhosi centre-back <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/soccer\/2025-08-01-dad-fabian-reckons-chiefs-got-a-better-mccarthy-in-aden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/soccer\/2025-08-01-dad-fabian-reckons-chiefs-got-a-better-mccarthy-in-aden\/\">Fabian<\/a>, three years before making his senior debut in May last year in Chiefs\u2019 1-1 draw against Sekhukhune United in the last league game of last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">This season he has racked up an impressive 22 league starts. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI was in Moldavia for five-and-a-half weeks for trial &#8230; almost two months [in June 2024, where he was assessed by that country\u2019s top-flight side Sheriff Tiraspol],\u201d McCarthy said on Thursday. \u201cThat experience made me a man to survive in this sport, in this industry. It taught me how to become a professional &#8230; I learnt to control what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Boxing and seeing a mental specialist also helped him prior to being a starter at Naturena, said the Chiefs centre-back. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI feel like what I did off the field helped me to stay grounded. I\u2019ve done boxing for almost a year &#8230; I\u2019ve just stopped because the schedule is hectic. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cI\u2019ve seen a mental coach, so mentally I am very strong. The mental coach, Dr Henning Gericke, is with the team [Chiefs] now. Prior to him coming here, I saw him three or four times &#8230; for preparing myself for the future and what was to come, what would be out of my control and how I can manage it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">McCarthy is expected to start when Chiefs face <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/2026-05-19-truter-becomes-chippas-seventh-coach-this-season-for-chiefs-clash\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.sowetan.co.za\/sport\/2026-05-19-truter-becomes-chippas-seventh-coach-this-season-for-chiefs-clash\/\">Chippa United<\/a> at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Saturday, the last day of the 2025\/26 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Sowetan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Story audio is generated using AI Defender Aden McCarthy, arguably one of Kaizer Chiefs\u2019 best players this season,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685359,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[330300,64,63,802,330304,330301,330303,317076,330305,330302,330306,85],"class_list":["post-685358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-aden-mccarthy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-and-football","tag-caf-confederation-cup","tag-chippa-united","tag-kaizer-chiefs","tag-mental-strength-in-sports","tag-moses-mabhida-stadium","tag-sheriff-tiraspol-trials","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=685358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685358\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}