I was one of the happiest people in football last week when I saw some of the talent that we produced here at Orlando Pirates Football club, contributing massively to their respective team’s in the PSL.

I am talking about Michael Morton whom we have loaned to BIDvest Wits, Tlou Segolela and Excellent Walaza to Bloemfontein Celtic and Lebogang Mokoena who was sold-out-right to Mamelodi Sundowns, just to mention a few.

It was quite overwhelming to see them perform with great intensity, and knowing that their football basics came from us is just an overwhelming feeling that is virtually impossible to express.

We are trying hard everyday to have players ready and fit to play at the senior level, hence we make it our priority that our coaches get qualified with SAFA qualifications so that they can contribute positively to the development of our boys.

Coaches Sphiwe Ngwenya, Timoty Moshime, Thabo Senong, Sifiso Bhengu, Patrick Ntshayisa have all completed the SAFA level II course, while coach Themba, Mbatha, Mandla Qhogi, Johannes Khomane, Bafana Dlamini, George Nontlantane have completed their level one courses.

Coach Sibusiso Masoka has the introductory course and is in the process of getting his level one coaching certificate.

It is without a doubt that the success of our boys is largely attributed to our coaches’ tireless dedication at training.

We are happy to know that after working extremely hard, today we can look back and point to our end-product, and proudly say that our sacrifices were not in vain.

Players like ‘Cheese Boy’, Benedict Vilakazi, Walaza, Abia Nale, Thulasizwe Kuzwayo (plays for Golden Arrows) and others, are testament that we are really heading in the right direction. These players after leaving our development program went on to make names for them selves in our football arena.

Many people might not know, but Nale who plays now for Kaizer Chiefs, came from our development program, and part of his football basics came from us… this is a fact.

We rejoice to see such players shine elsewhere… it is our joy at the end of a hard working period which sometimes takes as long as ten years, to see our boys grow as professional players.

We have other players that we loaned to a few first division league teams’, but I will talk about them in another occasion.

2009 season brief review

We have closed our 2009/2010 season on a high note. Just as we planned, majority of our players had a successful academic year, and their achievement in football is also something that we are satisfied with. We will be re-opening for next year in January 6th 2010.

Despite having two categories that ended their campaign in the SAFA Soweto league on top of the Log, I must say that that was not our priority. The improvement and maturity of a player each year is more important to us than anything else.

Unfortunately some players did not leave up to our expectations, and we will be forced to off-load them from our program. From the group of players that were here with us, six managed to break into the national team in the Under20 category, whilst some of our Under15 players have been promoted to our reserve side. This is good for us… those players have shown great improvement in their time here, and we feel that they have to be given another challenge.

We also went to Manchester (England) to play in the Nike Cup, and the experience our players acquired from the tournament has helped them immensely. Our coaches have also benefited a lot from that trip, because it is important that they experience such tournaments first-hand.

The Under12’s could not go to the DANONE Championships because of the flu epidemic that affected South America where the tournament was to take place.

I cannot close today’s’ column without mentioning to you that one more exciting youngster from our development program has been promoted to the first team. It will just be a matter of time until you see him showing his abilities in the field of play. He is 19-years-old, and his name is Mduduzi Nyanda.

While we are closed, we coaches are brainstorming ideas and finding new training methods for next year. We will also go through a workshop where we will try to find better ways of improving our training program. The coaches will present their end of season report so that we strategise accordingly for next year.

Gents, this is it for today… catch me here next week for an insight about the teams that are from South America who are going to be here next here during the world Cup.

Until next time.

Professor Augusto Palacios.