Nkayi soccer academy aims high

Sports Reporter
A STEADILY increasing number of football teams in the country’s top flight are emerging from non-big city areas, places few people dreamt professional football would be played.
With teams like Simba Bhora nestled in Shamva, people previously seeing no vision in their areas making a mark on the football map are dreaming big.
In Nkayi, a football project is slowly taking shape to harness the talent within the area that has largely remained untapped, unrefined and lost to other professions.
Nkayi Soccer Academy has set its sights on becoming a conveyor belt of football talent that will not only dazzle in the local Premiership but it should set ablaze international leagues.
Having spent years grooming youngsters at Dimpamiwa Primary School, sports teacher, Elmon Ncube has been pained to see talent emerge in its formative years and as soon as it blossoms, it suddenly dies with no one to pluck it and nurture it further.
“We have never really had top teams coming here to scout for talent irrespective of how we perform in junior competitions. We have always had some players that we believe if given a chance can go further,” he said.
Ncube said the project started last year and has enrolled 92 young players in various age categories including under 10, under 13, under 15, under 17 and under 20 in both the boys and girls soccer.
He revealed to ensure the success of the project, they approached community leadership in Nkayi who allocated them land big enough to fit three international standard size football pitches which they intend to set up at the centre.
“Our aim is to have quality facilities for the academy hence we will set up proper fields, accommodation facilities and other necessary facilities so that our players are exposed to high standards from a young age.
“We installed a borehole to secure a constant supply of water and as part of efforts to ensure the project is self-financing we planted over 500 citrus trees and built fowl runs where we will rear chicken road runners for sale,” said Ncube.
He revealed they have already planted turf in one of the grounds and are hoping that before end of the year it will be in good condition.
The facility is located in Ward 26, Mantoni Village two kilometres away from Nkayi Centre.
Ncube said their players are students at Dimpamiwa and Nkayi High as they aim to see them develop together as a unit and if they identify a talent they enrol in one of the schools as was the case with Brilliant Dube who is now at Nkayi High.
Dube emerged top goal scorer in NAPH provincial tournaments last year and was recruited by the academy which transferred him to Nkayi High and is now taking care of his educational expenses at the school after moving from Silobela.
The academy was in Bulawayo last weekend where they played against Highlanders juniors teams in a reciprocal visit after Bosso had made the trip to Nkayi last month.
Ncube said they are adding former Highlanders midfielder, Mthulisi Maphosa as they build up their technical staff complement which they hope to see increase gradually as they install a proper set-up that will develop rounded players.
“We also have Mthokozisi Mthombeni as our coach at Nkayi High but as we grow we will have a huge staff as we want to produce top notch players. We plan to have defenders coach, midfielders coach and strikers coach among others hence we slowly increasing our staff,” he said.
The academy has set its sights on international tournaments with The Pirates Cup, organised by South African football giants, Orlando Pirates, set to be their first port of call later this year.