The Sunday News
Ngqwele Dube, Sports Correspondent
SOUTH Africa-based juniors coach, Fortune “Fokoza” Ncube is set to take a new challenge this year after being reassigned to a different age group at Sporting CP Academy where he is plying his trade.
After being in charge of coaching the Under-12 and Under-10 sides at the Johannesburg football institution for the past two years, Ncube will this year be handling the Under-15 as well as Under-18 sides and is relishing taking on the new challenge.
Ncube said while the age gap between the groups might be small he believes it will be a different set due to the different stages the young footballers are in.
“I am looking forward to the new challenge and it is something that I have been anticipating as I was informed one is reassigned every two years. At a younger age there is need for patience while the older players are more cognisant of more football tactics and techniques, they are still developing and need new concepts to be introduced to them. While it is a new challenge, it will also be a new learning curve for me as a coach,” he said.
Ncube who was on holiday in the country over the festive season said his stay at the academy has widened his coaching knowledge, introduced him to professionalism and enabled him to appreciate junior coaching more.
He said while locally junior football mainly starts at 13 years, at Sporting CP, they recruit players from the age of six and start introducing them to various concepts of the game.
“Here (in Zimbabwe) at six children will just be playing in the street or given the ball to play around with but at the academy they are introduced to various techniques of the game and tactics as well.
“For every age level there are different techniques and tactics and this enables them to progress well in their careers,” said Ncube.
He said it was critical to differentiate the size of the pitches and number of players for the different age groups. For six and seven-year-olds, you have five players each side and goes to seven players each in eight and nine-year age group, with 10 and 11 playing nine footballers a side.
Ncube, who holds a Caf C coaching badge, said it would be good locally if junior development would consider pitch sizes for different age groups as this assists in ball contact for each player.
“I take it as a full time job because in outside matches one is always drawing up training programmes and doing match analysis.
“A lot of tournaments also impact positively on the training as the young footballers get to play the game more. While the leagues run from April to around October, at the academy we will be active throughout the year,” he added.
Ncube who played for various clubs locally that include Hwange, Bantu Rovers and Motor Action started his coaching career at Christian Saints in Harare in 2012 before moving to Beitbridge where he joined ZRP and was then recruited by Luke Masomere at Border Strikers as the second assistant coach then. He joined Arenel FC in 2017 before joining Sporting FC.
