‘We dump our retired stars’
Former Ria Stars and Kaizer Chiefs striker Sydney Moshikaro laments the exclusion of retired stars in football today. Moshikaro says football bodies in the country have failed to document and archive the history of South African football and celebrate those who have played a significant role in building the legacy of the game in the country. The former Bafana Bafana international was baffled by Lucas Radebe being ineligible to run for the South African Football Association presidency.
“In South Africa we shut out former footballers completely – once your days of playing football are over then you are done. We can’t even give out awards to current players at football awards ceremonies, they would rather call on celebrities to do it. What worries me is the current players are in the same pitfalls as players from our generation.
“We can’t seem to get through to them, we can’t communicate with them to advise and in some instances, we are barred by clubs from speaking to the players. The current players are not learning from mistakes from players who came before them so we can stop the suffering of players once they retire. We don’t communicate with them enough and they can’t learn from us.”
The 44-year-old works as a coach at Ollesdas FC in the ABC Motsepe League in the Limpopo region after leaving Great North FC, owned by Safa vice-president Ria Ledwaba’s son Harr, two years ago.
Moshikaro finds pleasure in managing players who take initiative on the field and have an opinion on the direction the team should take to achieve the club’s goals. Speaking on challenges facing coaches in the third tier, the former Chiefs striker revealed that ABC Motsepe clubs are bought and sold at an alarming rate which makes it difficult for coaches to do their jobs, with the mandate changing constantly.
The Mokopane-based mentor would like to coach in the Absa Premiership or GladAfrica
Championship but indicated that interference from management in the running of a team is something he can’t tolerate.
“Most players in this league don’t commit themselves. They don’t show up for training at times and then expect to be fielded come game day because they know there is a rule to field under-23 players so they are guaranteed game time.
“While we were at Rovers with Lucky Lekgwathi in the 90s they didn’t pay us at times but we still showed up and trained even though sometimes we would skip certain exercise routines during the session in protest for not receiving our wages.
“We still showed up and played a game as a way of training for the weekend game because we wanted to play for big clubs, but today I think that’s what’s missing in the current players,” said Moshikaro frowning over the lack of ambition from players.
The former goalpoacher has started the Sydney Moshikaro Foundation, which hosts tournaments where youngsters are allowed to form teams and register for the tournament.