Ferdinard Ndi’s casual stroll home from work births a soccer club
Ferdinard Ndi's Opopo FC Academy started off with a handful of boys and the club has since burgeoned into four divisional teams of U13, U15, and U17 plus the senior team.
When Cameroonian immigrant Ferdinard Ndi took a casual stroll back home from work and saw young boys playing soccer in the streets, he was inspired to find them a safe haven where they can enjoy the beautiful game away from the ever-dangerous streets of the Johannesburg CBD.
It was not too long after that when he realised his dream and founded the boys a safe haven under the umbrella of Opopo FC Academy in 2014 and registered his club in the Mayfair Local Football Association.
Ndi started off with a handful of boys and the club has since burgeoned into four divisional teams of U13, U15, and U17 plus the senior team, the latter of which has worked its way up the football ladder from the LFA to the regional league and missed promotion to the ABC Motsepe League this year by a whisker, after it was knocked out in the play-offs.
“Our vision is to provide an escape from the perils of life for the vulnerable and underprivileged aspiring soccer children and later turn them into professionals, and to give them access to structured and organised sports programmes, which promote psycho-social development, life skills training as well as a basic exercise in a fun and safe environment,” Ndi said.
“Furthermore, our goal is to use soccer as a community development device. We do this by using various football activities to produce excellent sporting skills and cultivate socio-economic conditions for our players,” Thabiso Magubane, spokesperson for Opopo Football Club Academy added.
“Through our training methods, we hope to teach discipline, as well as provide them with knowledge and support to motivate them to be successful individuals.”
Magubane said the team draws inspiration from former President Nelson Mandela’s words that ‘sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. Sports can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than the government in breaking down racial barriers. It laughs in the face of all kinds of discrimination.
“As per our name, Opopo, which means ‘One People One Power’, our team exists to fulfil this very purpose – to unite and bring hope to the disadvantaged individuals residing in and around the Johannesburg CBD through soccer.”
Zanele Nhlapo, a public relations and corporate social relations manager at 10bet South Africa, said organisations that improve the lives of people on the ground in communities were particularly important to and worthy of support by 10bet South Africa.
“Opopo has proven through their success stories that sport indeed has the power to bring social cohesion, mental and social change, and we are confident that our donation will enable the team to meet the goals that they have set for themselves for the season.”
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