Not easy to start over when playing career done – Yohane

Former AmaZulu and Bidvest Wits midfielder Charles Yohane (left) has highlighted the pitfalls that come with making the transition from playing football to coaching in the Absa Premiership.

Yohane has returned to his old hunting ground at Wits as a development coach.

The former Zimbabwean international last played professionally with the defunct FC AK.

The 44-year-old saw coaching as an outlet to remain within the ranks of the beautiful game.

He is passionate about coaching and works with other academies without remuneration to help develop players.

“I am at Wits as a development coach, I work with the under-17 squad,” said Yohane. “I am grateful that the club started the development academy.

“Roger de Sa started it around the time I was about to leave the club for FC AK, so later it benefited me. We can have talented players but the most important thing is development, they need to be developed and taught early.”

Yohane sees working in Wits’ development structures as a way of giving back to a club that contributed to a successful career for him in South African’s top flight.

Like most players of his generation who did not earn the sums of money that the current generation of players earn, Yohane says he was fortunate to have kept his house after starting a new journey as a coach, with his days as a midfield conductor behind him.

“When you start out as coach, you obviously start small.

“You go from being, maybe, a big-name player who has made an impact, then you need to start all over again and work your way up and earn respect as a coach, which can take some time.

“That comes with a salary cut. You need to earn a junior coach’s salary and work your way up.

“It comes with making changes in your lifestyle, but I made sure that I kept my house and made the payments like I had to.

“I hope the players today learn and keep the money and invest because we didn’t have that privilege (of earning so much money), so I hope they see it.”

Yohane is studying towards a degree in sports management, having completed his diploma, and is looking to complete his coaching certificates locally before heading to Europe to further his coaching studies.

He is confident that the [Zimbabwe] Warriors will continue their dominance over the Southern region after winning the Cosafa Cup a few weeks ago in Polokwane.

Yohane believes he set the standard for the likes of Khama Billiat, Willard Katsande and Talent Chawapiwa to follow when they moved to South Africa and is not surprised by the fine showing of his fellow countrymen in the Absa Premiership.

“Our generation started the move to South Africa ... we only had one player overseas at the time, Peter Ndlovu, but we all wanted to come to South Africa.

“So it is good to see how a lot of them are not just coming but you have others going overseas which will help the national team and make Zimbabwe a country that teams can go to for signing players.”