How South Africa's PSL fairs up against the European League
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Soccer in South Africa has been around since the 19th century, having said this why is it then that Soccer in South Africa is not of the high quality of that of the European Leagues? Anyone that watches the PSL as well as any European soccer can easily compare the quality and class between the two. SA has also failed to establish high quality class of football despite showing promising talents. like European stars like
- Gary Bailey
- Benni Mcarthy
- Steven Pienaar
These are just to name a few. However SA has failed to produce stars like Drogba, Essien, Toure and Eto just to name a few, Benny Mcarthy was one of those stars and one would think that after him many would follow, not saying that Pienaar is not good but he is not the quality of other African stars. So where has SA gone wrong and who is to blame for not developing quality like Drogba, Eto and Cisse. Not so long ago I watched Pirates and Chiefs, South Africa's Biggest Derby. I could see straight away that SA has the class and quality but its RAW. These skills and talents have not been developed properly and these players have not been guided. The youth of SA watches the likes of Messi and Ronaldo and they want to be like them and when they soon make it onto the scene they lose sight of the hard work they have put in and the fame and fortune goes to the head. The thing is our players want to copy and do what these stars are doing instead of focusing on their own style. SA soccer has its own style and the sooner we realise that the sooner we can compete European level. Brazil does not play in any European leagues and their soccer league is pretty much like ours, but they focus on their own strengths and skills and develop these skills thus paving the ground for their players to make a big impact on international level. SA has got a unique style of playing soccer and personally I believe that if you focus on these strengths one can dominate on the international scene, but somewhere in the system something is wrong and it will take many years until that is fixed
The PSL has some good soccer and recently one can see that the quality of the players and the games today is easily a 100% better that it was just before the FIFA world cup. But i fear it may still take a few years before we see players like Drogba, Essien and Eto come from South African soil
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ReplyDeleteWhile we do have some promising soccer players such as Pienaar, Tshabalala, Khune and Moktjo who just recently broke into the first team of dutch team feyenoord. What we need in South Africa is to develop good youth programs that can refine our raw young talent and also to keep an eye on them because it's a shame when you see a bright young star's skills diminish because of alcohol and/or drug abuse. All the great teams train their players from very early ages. Many of the Barcelona squad have not played for any other football team in their professional careers like Puyol, Xavi, Iniesta, Valdes and Messi. They all came from Barcelona C, to Barcelona B then finally to FC Barcelona. I believe part of the issue that South African football has is the nurturing of our talent which shouldn't be because we have the richest league in Africa.
ReplyDeleteSouth Africa actually used to be one of the strongest African football sides in the past. The 1996 African Cup Of Nations winning side was arguably our strongest and the players within were very much legends for the clubs they played for. Lucas Radebe is both a Kaizer Chiefs legend and Leeds Utd legend, he actually inspired the British band "Kaiser Chiefs" to name themselves that because they were fans of him and decided to choose his former club as their band name. Nelson Mandela himself once said "This is my hero" while referring to Lucas Radebe. Doctor Khumalo who is my favourite childhood soccer player is a Kaizer Chiefs and South African footballing legend and won three league championships and five knockout trophies while he played for them. There were also the likes of Phil Masinga, Mark Fish, John "Shoes" Moshoeu, Neil Tovey and Mark Williams to name a few. The Point is that South Africa does have the ability to produce the talent but somewhere along the way we lost the ability to cultivate and refine it.
Amadeus one can clearly see that you know your local soccer, that is a matter of high respect. I do not disagree with you Lucas Radebe is probably SA best production of soccer talent we have ever witnessed. The fact that our soccer is richest in Africa yet we still fail to produce and perform on international level is very concerning. We need to implement programs and camps that coaches young talent like Barca does. That is a key aspect, but that is not our only problem in SA. We have to much politics in our sport and im talking not only of soccer but all our sports. The thing is other countries also have politics in their sports but they seem to know how to mange between the two and keep what goes in on the field outside what goes on in the office. There is allot of work that must be done before we can be on the level of other clubs
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