Former Mamelodi Sundowns defender hopes to nurture football talent

To address social ills plaguing some professional footballers, a former Bafana Bafana and Mamelodi Sundowns defender is on a quest to create a platform aimed at addressing these challenges.

Noordwyk resident Sipho Ndzuzo, affectionately known as ‘Mfundizi’ during his heydays, is setting up the Footballers Factory (FF), a non-profit organisation, which aims to mentor, nurture and develop young talented football players, both boys and girls, by teaching holistic social skills.

Ndzuzo said FF wanted to address, challenge and debate on topics of social ills that talented youth are faced with in this country.
“This initiative’s main objective is to unearth the raw talent who are not so privileged to get opportunities to showcase their talent and stand a great chance of taking their talent to another level. At FF, we believe that South Africa has football talent, ours was to ask, how then can we prepare these young footballers from the ages of 10 to U17?” added Ndzuzo.

Ndzuzo was the former South African Football Players Union president and believes very little was being done by the football community to teach young players social skills with emphasis on technical matters and acumen.

“Young aspiring players in the country also come from difficult backgrounds and have had to overcome a lot of hardships to make it to the top. So, FF through volunteers and social workers, will prepare these players to be better human beings and role models.”

The Midrand trials will take place on March 21 and 22 at Curro Waterfall for both U10 boys and girls.

Details: Sipho Nduzo: 079 037 6300, ndzuzo333@gmail.com

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