Young soccer players of Mamelodi Sundowns’ Sanlam Kay Motsepe School Cup training camp will hopefully play with a bit of Spanish flare now.
This after receiving some valuable tips from Spanish coach Enrique Diaz who is affiliated to the Johan Cruyff Institute based in Spain.
Sundowns have an arrangement with the institute which provides coaches to assist with technical matters at the club and Diaz is one of them. He was been at the Brazilians for three years.
Diaz, who has a Level 3 coaching qualification in Spain – the highest level you can get – was a former FC Barcelona development coach. He said he was impressed by the youngsters. “It was better than I expected,” he said. “The players know the rules of the game and the basics, and they all have the skills. They were very shy at first and it took a couple of days for the players to settle down, but as the camp progressed, they became more confident.”
The players were selected by scouts that attended the provincial finals, and the players were reassessed at the national finals and then selected.
The aim of the camp is to help the players with talent to take their football to a different level and give them a taste of what professional football is all about. Based on the first couple of training sessions, the coaches have noticed that many of the players have picked up bad habits and the challenge is to see how quickly they can eliminate those.
“We have an excellent development academy with brilliant players here at Sundowns,” Diaz said. “And the standards are very high. Any new players that come into our system will be evaluated on how quickly they adapt to the Sundowns style of play.”
Diaz believes that South Africa has extraordinarily skilled players, but the problem is that players do not put enough effort into their game. “Once they have been selected to play in a professional team, the players seem to lose the hunger,” he said.
“Off the pitch the players need to be more focused. They need to understand the importance of schoolwork, discipline and sacrifice. To be professional, players need to pay attention to all aspects of their lives.”
