The Sunday News
Mandla Moyo, Sports Reporter
GRASSROOTS coaches from the country continue to make inroads in foreign lands in particular in the USA where there have made a tremendous contribution to the game.
Some of the former PSL players who have made their presence felt in foreign land are Thulani “Biya” Ncube as well as Zenzo Ndlovu.
Through a project dubbed Biya and Friends, which also has a running grassroots project in the country former national team stalwart Ncube continues to give back to the game that gave him fame by helping develop young, up and coming players in the USA.
On the other hand Ndlovu, based in Alabama, USA is the founder of Soccer for life Academy which has an enrollment of over two hundred passionate young players.
According to Ndlovu, local clubs are missing it due to the fact that they are relying on outdated systems hence are not willing to adapt to modern changes in the game.
“Clubs are still operating under traditional and outdated systems and are not willing to embrace change.
“The majority of clubs are still run and have board members from old school, who hardly travel overseas to learn from successful programmes and then emulate what other entities are engaging themselves in.
“This approach will always bring stagnation and anti-progress, if you check individual academies are mainly run by younger generations, former and non-former players who have chosen to adapt to change.
When asked what is needed in order to breathe a new lease of life to grassroots football development Ndlovu said there was need to create an environment that will give children fun.
“There is need to create an environment that is fun for kids, there must something solid that kids must aim for, be it a gateway through overseas scholarships, high end tournaments that can expose them to greatness among other benefits.
At the same time according to Ndlovu clubs need to come down from their high chairs to engage local business in search of sponsorship in order to amass resourced needed for the project in turn this can kindle fire and passion in the kids as well as the coach himself
On the issue of use of networks, they have established in foreign land in order to improve the game local he said such networks can be handy at the same time benefit the country a lot.
“It is true that former players based in Europe or other parts of the world have established a lot of networks where they played or are still playing.
“However, I don’t know how wide and deep those networks go but to an extent, it behoves on local programmes as well as clubs to partner with these individuals overseas for the development of local sports.
As somebody who has been involved in grassroots football for a number of years in a different country Ndlovu feels this work is not a calling for everyone but the passionate ones.
“This kind of work is not for everyone. Not everyone finds this as a game changer for our local sports. It takes passion and deep love to roll your sleeves and get involved in the communities and give back.
“Local football government needs to acknowledge and appreciate the ones that have been doing this kind of work publicly. I believe by so doing this will provoke as well as steer up others to follow suit,” added Ndlovu.
Some successful grassroots in the country are the Albun Academy, DC Academy, Eagles, Legends, Galaxy Academy and Sportsvale Academy among others.
