Although it is sometimes overemphasised as the magical elixir that will cure all the ailments of South African football and transform Bafana Bafana into a genuine world power, the development of talent from a young age through knowledgeable and effective structures is a neglected area that has been in need of urgent attention.
It is therefore encouraging that two events — one this past week and one this weekend — could further the process.
In the first instance, at what is appropriately labelled Old Trafford’s “theatre of dreams” stadium, Orlando Pirates’ team of youngsters made history of some considerable significance by becoming the first African side to reach the Manchester United Premier Cup final for under-15 players — and going down 0-1 to Mexico’s Pachuca only after a doughty battle.
The worldwide tournament, financed by international sports goods company Nike — their slogan of “just do it” seems apt in this case — had a reputed 8 000 teams from around the globe taking part in the preliminary rounds of the competition.
It featured such vaunted participants as Manchester United, Chelsea, Brazil’s Bahia and Dutch team Feyenoord, among many other well-known clubs, and the Buccaneers’ feat of reaching the final is indeed a boost for the development process in South Africa.
Pirates development director Augusto Palacios, who was in charge of the Buccaneers side in the Manchester United Premier Cup, described the event as “the experience of their lives” for his young charges.
“Reaching the final was a great achievement,” said Palacios, who was a member of the 1978 Argentinian World Cup squad and has secured the titular description of “professor” after receiving the top coaching degrees available in South America.
“This was the fifth time we have qualified for the finals in Manchester and we had never gone beyond the first round before. We were determined to improve on that record this time, but reaching the final and coming close to winning the cup was beyond our expectations.”
Rivalling this event of major importance in the development area is the reinstatement this weekend of the National First Division’s far-reaching rule that all teams have to field a minimum of five under-23 players in their line-ups at all times.
The objective, of course, is to develop young talent and Premier Soccer League (PSL) communications manager Altaaf Kazi said the rule would be strictly implemented.
“To do this, the registration cards of under-23 players will be a different colour to those older than 23 and will be easily recognisable by referees and other officials in charge of matches,” said Kazi.
“If an under-23 player is replaced, an under-23 player will have to take his place. Teams who break the rule will appear before the league’s Âdisciplinary committee and punishment could be as severe as the loss of points and hefty fines.”
Kazi said the seriousness with which the PSL viewed development was emphasised by the fact that the new rule had been accepted almost unanimously by the board of governors and the first-division clubs.
The South African Football Association seemingly shares these sentiments. Communications director Morio Sanyane said that the national body’s development structure, headed by Letsoaka Serame, had accepted the recommendations of a nationwide workshop that talent had to be cultivated from the ages of six and seven because starting at the under-14 or under-12 levels could be missing the boat.
Palacios said he was proud that Pirates had developed possibly the best development structure in South Africa to make their mark in England in front of impressed dignitaries, who included Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson and stars such as Gary Neville and Darren Fletcher.
He added that he was also optimistic that, under its new technical management team, Pirates would in future place a greater emphasis on what had been an established procedure in the past: funnelling development talent into the senior team, as had been done with Gift Leremi, Benedict Vilakazi and numerous others.
Bidvest Wits coach Roger de Sa said the University of the Witwatersrand was a pioneer of soccer development in South Africa. Half of his current Premier League players, including Sibusiso Vilakazi and Asive Langwe, came from the club’s youth ranks and many other notable stars had moved on to other clubs.
Assisting De Sa at the forefront of development is former Bafana star and club assistant coach Eric Tinkler. And at Sundowns such notable former stars as Harris Choeu and Jan Lechaba have been entrusted with developing up-and-coming talent.
Development, of course, is not everything. Despite the availability of adequate finance, countries such as Cameroon and Ghana have enjoyed far greater success than South Africa, which has had more expensive development projects.
Ultimately it is the heart, soul and spirit of the players that will turn South African soccer into what remains at the moment a dream.