An ambitious ‘high performance programme”, aimed at identifying young, talented soccer players and enabling them to reach their full potential, has swung into action.
Part of the programme will focus on strengthening the life skills of the players, and teachers will be enlisted to help achieve this.
The programme is a partnership between the University of the Witwatersrand’s Centre of Exercise and Sports Medicine (WCESM), the South African Football Association (Safa) and Lotto South Africa.
It is targeting boys younger than 17 and girls younger than 15.
Demetri Constantinou, a doctor based at the WCESM, said it targeted these two age groups because ‘potential for adaptation and change is still there and potentially they [boys] can be part of the World Cup squad for 2010, while girls could also be drafted in the team for the 2008 women’s World Cup in Russia”.
Constantinou said more than 300 youngsters from all nine provinces are involved in the programme. They were chosen after a rigorous process that involved Safa’s talent scouts and provincial coaches.
Raymond Hack, Safa’s CEO, said: ‘This project comes at a critical time for the development of football, when we want to integrate other areas outside the technical expertise that will enable us to take our game to the next level.”
He said using sports science and medicine as key support systems in identifying and developing players, particularly at a young stage, will ensure they produce ‘a complete player” of sufficient quality.
Constantinou said talent identification is not easy. ‘You don’t just look at a young boy and say because you are tall, you can make a good basketball player. It does not work like that. You will be surprised to see that a short guy can do much better than the tall one. So you have got to take a whole range of factors into account,” he said.
WCESM’s role is primarily to provide scientific and technical information. For instance, during the talent identification process, players had to undergo ‘various scientific, medical, cardiological, dietary, psychological, sports vision, dental and life tests”.
Constantinou said once they found that a player has a problem in any of the identified areas, they intervene to ensure that this does not hinder the player in future.
‘We deal with problems that are present and those that have potential to occur in future,” he said.
He said the other critical aspect of the programme is life skills. ‘We want the players to be better people on and off the field. We would feel proud because we would have contributed to their well- being even if they do not succeed in sports,” said Constantinou.
He said they have also developed a mentorship programme where they will enlist the support of teachers, as most youngsters are learners. He said teachers spend a lot of time with the players and they would be in a better position to provide guidance and advice.
Hunting ground for talent
In his professional career, Marks Maponyane scored a record 85 goals for Kaizer Chiefs alone.
But the former player-turned-businessperson and television commentator had a poor and humble beginning.
‘I started playing soccer at the tender age of six in the dusty streets of Meadowlands, Zone 1, in Soweto. Like any other township boy, I used to play with friends using a makeshift ‘ball’ made of cloths and plastic rags. We then started challenging one another,” he said.
Thanks to Maponyane, the names of his former two primary schools, Morutathuto Primary School and Masekhene Primary School, were put on the map. But it was at Kelokitso High School that ‘everything changed”, said Maponyane.
During this time, competition among the schools was intense.
‘I still remember people would knock off early at work or some would not even go to work just to watch us play,” said Maponyane.
And it was at these competitions that Maponyane continued to do what he knew best: scoring goals. ‘I would score, on average, six goals. I remember scoring 68 goals in a year. In one game, we led our opponents by 12 goals to nil,” said Maponyane.
He said schools were seen as happy hunting grounds for professional sides, especially Orlando Pirates, Kaizer Chiefs and Moroka Swallows.
His prolific scoring prowess — thanks to hard work and determination to make it to the top — caught the eyes of Chiefs’s talent scouts who did not hesitate to sign him. This was in 1981.
He announced his arrival at his new club by scoring on his debut match against Leicester City, instantly becoming a darling of the club’s fans. He went on to win the Footballer of the Year award in 1987 and years later he went to try his luck overseas.
He believes schools are still great hunting grounds to help identify and groom talent as they did during his time in the early 1980s. The difference is that during his time there were no structures in place dedicated to unearthing talent. It was just sheer love and passion for the game that drove young players to achieve more.
‘Ironically, today youngsters have access to hi tech facilities and earn more money, but they lack passion and commitment,” said Maponyane. — Thabo Mohlala