Former Railstars gaffer lands top post in SA Keutsepilemang Ndebele
Keutsepilemang Ndebele

Keutsepilemang Ndebele

Lovemore Dube Senior Sports Editor
FORMER Highlanders technical advisor Keutsepilemang Ndebele has landed a top post with the South African Football Association. Ndebele, who also once worked as assistant coach at Railstars, has been appointed a Safa regional technical officer for Mpumalanga province.

He was one of the most promising football minds at the turn of the century with a group of young coaches who included the late Benjamin Moyo, Charles Mhlauri, Bongani Mafu, Luke Masomere and Isaac Mbedzi.

“I have been appointed technical officer here in Mpumalanga (South Africa). My task is to organise coaches in my region and put structures in place and then spread the national playing philosophy. The South African Football Coaches Association came up with a document outlining how the game ought to be played as a national identity,” said an elated Ndebele.

A playing philosophy adopted by the whole country would see players from elementary level up to Premier clubs and senior national teams playing the same way. This makes it easier for coaches to build formidable national teams and can change their game plan according to the opposition faced.

But in most countries and clubs in particular Africa, junior national teams play different football to their seniors. The same could also be said of Zimbabwe junior football where rapport in some instances between junior and senior team coaches is non existent.

Senior club coaches tend to believe that exposing junior talent would put their jobs on the line.

However, if they worked as a unit, the players would grow within that club’s playing culture for instance great Highlanders and Dynamos teams have been known for great centrebacks, overlapping wingbacks and tearaway wingers that eject fans off their seats with electrifying pace and trickery.

Ndebele did part of his coaching education in Bulawayo and Brazil before attending more workshops in South Africa.

Several Zimbabwean groomed coaches have done well in Botswana, Canada, Namibia, South Africa, India and the US.

Ndebele said their aim was to give coaches confidence to participate in the growth of the game. Harmony among the practitioners was a priority.

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