adminTHE truth about football is that things do not just happen, a programme of action must be in place to take a particular team or national association to the next level. By chance, success might come, but there are no guarantees that the honeymoon will last. We might as well take lessons from Germany, whose clubs and players are now dominating the world. After a long spell playing second fiddle to other nations in Europe, Germany went from bust to boom on the talent production line and that came soon after they suffered an embarrassing Euro 2000. Robin Dutt had replaced Matthias Sammer as the sporting director at the German Football Association, taking on responsibility for the development of young players and coaches.
The media in Europe says a decade or so after the association management travelled the world in search of best practice, “Dutt smiles at the irony that other nations are coming to them for advice these days.” Dan Ashworth, the Football Association’s director of elite development, was among recent visitors, spending three hours with Dutt, the former Bayer Leverkusen and SC Freiburg coach, in a meeting that must have been enlightening.
German football is booming, reaping the rewards of the strategy drawn up after their dismal performances at Euro 2000, when Germany finished bottom of their group. Forced into an overhaul of youth football, the DFB, the Bundesliga and the clubs decided that the development of more technically proficient homegrown players would be in everyone’s best interests. This led to the creation of academies right across the top two divisions.
“The fruits are there for all to see. Joachim Löw, Germany’s coach, is blessed with a generation of gifted young players – Julian Draxler (19), Andre Schürrle (22), Sven Bender (24), Thomas Müller (23), Holger Badstuber (24), Mats Hummels (24), Mesut Ozil (24), Ilkay Gundogan (22), Mario Götze (20), Marco Reus (23), Toni Kroos (23) … the list goes on.” Back home, we had production lines at Highlanders, where Ali “Baba” Dube would churn out cream after cream.
Talk of the likes of the Ndlovu brothers, Willard Khumalo and the late Mercedes Sibanda, with a later generation of the likes of Master Masiku, Siza Khoza, Gift Lunga (Jnr) and Thulani Ncube, among others. We had Zimbabwe Saints with their own junior coaches like the late Lazarus “Juju” Zimangi. We saw the likes of Mlungisi Ndebele, Sikhumbuzo Banda, Esrom Nyandoro and the late Butholezwe Mahachi. Bulawayo was the hub of junior football back then, with AmaZulu coming up with their own way of luring young talent which formed the back bone of junior national teams.
Wieslaw Grabowski had his ambitious and fruitful production line at Darryn T, and the world saw what came out of his Chitungwiza nursery. We saw the likes of Norman Mapeza, Stewart Murisa, Alois Bunjira and Engelbert Dinha, and Caps United were also not to be outdone, bringing up brilliant boys like the late Blessing Makunike. Dynamos were also not to be outdone, producing quality in the mould of the likes of Memory Mucherahohwa, Chamu Musanhu and Murape Murape is just one current example of what a sound junior programme can produce.
Of late, the only meaningful production line in terms of junior football has been the Aces Academy, where Knowledge Musona and Khama Billiat came from, and they were literally unknown in the country until they crossed the border to South Africa where they became instant stars. The Academy also had a number of players in the team that lost on Thursday in the semifinals of the Cosafa tournament to South Africa in Lesotho.
The team lost on penalties, perhaps not so embarrassing, but when you take into account that we used to dominate junior national team tournaments for fun years back, you then realise the gravity of our problem. Our junior development has got off the rails. There is not much effort from big teams like Highlanders, Dynamos and Caps United to invest in junior development because they all want to run after complete products so as to produce results in the Premiership.
But the question is who should produce that finished product to be chased after by Premiership teams? In the run up to the Cosafa tournament, a lot was expected from Walter, younger brother to Knowledge, another product of Aces Academy, Brett Amidu, who is based in South Africa as well as Benard Donovan and Wisdom Mutasa.
Young Warriors coach Jairos Tapera who was eyeing a seventh Cosafa Under-20 Championships title for the country before the tournament spoke highly of his charges. “I think we have done enough to craft a formidable side capable of coming back with gold. The players know that they have to restore lost pride and that is what we will be fighting for. We are ready for any challenge in Lesotho,” Tapera said.
But that was not to be, which means Zifa and clubs have to go back to the drawing board and come up with strategies that will see the country producing talent that would conquer the region and perhaps the world. Perhaps the country is suffering from a temporary withdrawal of junior teams from regional tournaments, but if we want to have national teams in future that will compete and qualify for regional and continental tournaments, a lot has to be done to reignite the junior development fire.
The initiative has to start at the top and we have to learn from the best in the industry. Just last year, the English Football Association made one of the most important decisions in history when it voted in favour of youth development plans that will enhance technique and game understanding. Among the resolutions was to introduce small-sided games for kids and have no league table for them so as to encourage them to concentrate on enjoying the game and accumulating skill than chasing results.
It really does not make sense for Under 13s to be worried about where they finished on the log come end of the year, and funny enough, coaches get sacked because their teams would be at the bottom of the log, but the aim is not to win the league race, but to nurture talent. The successful vote in England meant that kids will not play 11-a-side football until they are 13, that the five-a-side format will be mandatory for under-sevens and under-eights while under-11s and under-12s will play nine versus nine on size-appropriate pitches. Leagues will involve smaller periods of competition, rather than the eight-month adult variety, while parents and coaches will be urged to drop the “win-at-all-costs” approach to children’s football.
“We want there to be less pressure on kids,” said Nick Levett, the FA’s national development manager for youth football who has spent the past two years criss-crossing the country, making presentations and winning over counties and leagues. “There needs to be a climate change – this is kids’ football, not the World Cup final.” Yet the long-term aspiration is to accentuate technique, so moulding better players. “This is about grass-roots football but also a 15 to 20-year programme for long-term player development, ultimately to help produce players to support the professional game and England team,’’ added Levett.
“It will mean more touches, more shots and more dribbles for young players and therefore improving the kids’ technique,” he told the media. Zifa and the PSL should sit down and come up with strategies to be passed on to clubs so that our football can develop. The piece meal approach where one or two academies in Harare are doing it right, or FC Platinum is trying to do it right, while the rest of the nation is getting it wrong will not help matters at all.
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Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter