Those things don’t fall from the sky

“Obviously, there are certain things that happened behind the scenes, but…”

Sinesipho Mali is an example of a passionate individual who does not allow his background to deter him as he managed to work his way to the top despite limited resources. The Ngxwalane-born football enthusiast started as a coach in the amateur ranks at the tender age of 14 and over the years has added such titles as performance analyst, scout and television pundit. His most recent gig was a big one, technical scout and loans’ manager at Kaizer Chiefs. A dream come true he says! In this interview with Soccer Laduma’s Masebe Qina, the pint-sized scout talks about the three years he spent at Amakhosi and what the different roles he held at the club entailed. Mali also talks about the laborious process of profiling a player for a big club, and then opens up on how his time with the Soweto giants came to an abrupt end.

Masebe Qina: How are you feeling, having recently parted ways with Kaizer Chefs?

Sinesipho Mali: I’m in a very good space and I’m enjoying myself in this space. I’ve just started the Premier League analysis for this season with the SABC and it’s something that’s keeping me excited. I’m also watching a lot of football. I was in Durban recently for the DDC (DStv Diski Challenge) festival and I also watch PSL (DStv Premiership) and NFD (Motsepe Foundation Championship) matches.

MQ: How did you secure the Amakhosi gig in 2019?

SM: (Giggles) It’s actually very interesting and I think you might know that before I joined Chiefs, I was at Chippa United. I had previously also worked with Bafana Bafana during the 2019 COSAFA Cup in Durban. So, there was an opportunity to join Chiefs in 2019 and I went for an interview in July of that year. I was successful and I joined the team in the role of performance analysis to work with the academy and the senior team. It was a great experience and a dream come true for me. I think someone like you, who has been following my career, would know that I was a Chiefs fan and it had been one of my dreams to work for the club and I was excited when it came true.

MQ: What was the journey like?

SM: It was an honour, my brother. Working for the club was fulfilling and exciting. When you have a career, you set targets and dreams for yourself. You create a pathway for yourself that is going to help you to achieve those things. I’ve always been very clear and very courageous and bold that one day I would work for Chiefs. But it was not just about me just saying it, it was about me putting in the work to help me to fulfil that dream. If we can go back to the 2017/18 season, my first season at Chippa, we played Chiefs three times – twice in the league and once in the Telkom Knockout – and we beat them twice. So, there was always that hunger and emotion to try and win against a team that I aspired to work for. Maybe that was one of the things that helped me to fulfil my dream, which was to make sure that whenever we played Chiefs, I had to make sure that I did my utmost best within the role I served at the club to impact the team in the little way that I could in terms of analysis. It’s the same with players, players will always give their all whenever they play against Chiefs and other big teams.

MQ: From September last year, you were the club’s technical scout and player loans’ manager…

SM:

So, one of the people who recommended me to join Chiefs was the former head of scout at the club, Walter Steenbok. We’ve had a very close relationship for many years, and he’s one of the people who’ve been following my work closely. When he left the club last year in August, there was no one in scouting, and scouting is one of the roles that I love and am passionate about. I always tell people that before anything else, I am a coach, and any other specialist fields, like analysis and scouting, are specialist fields within coaching and they are not isolated. When people ask me why I stopped being a coach, I tell them that I never stopped being a coach, but the difference now is that I’m a specialist within the coaching field – it could be performance analysis or the scouting element. When Walter left, it was an opportunity for me to come in fulltime, because already, as part of performance analysis, we were doing a lot of scouting work, so it was just more official last year. That’s when I became the technical scout and the loans’ manager, and I was also responsible for giving consistent monthly and seasonal reports based on the players that were on loan. The club would decide that a certain player needed to further his development once he had completed the development phase between the academy and the DDC and I was also in charge of that. What technical scouting entails is to look for the best talent from grassroots and all the levels from the different parts of the country, and that is basically what my job at Chiefs was all about. Being a technical scout also meant that there was a lot of technical admin work that I had to do.

MQ: What qualities do you look for to decide that a player can play for Chiefs?

SM:

The foundation of football is the talent. You must be talented to be considered to play at an elite level. Then there are other special qualities that we have to look at and one of those is that you must be technically gifted. Without technique, you can’t do anything. Then you go deeper and you look at tactical elements, depending on the position that the player plays. For an example, if you are looking for a fullback, you have to know the qualities that are needed for a fullback and those qualities are also going to be addressed by the style of play in terms of how the team plays. What are the tactical functions of that fullback in relation to how the team plays and what system does the team play? Do they play three at the back or are they playing with wingbacks or four at the back? If the team plays with three at the back, one of the key qualities that you’d look for is more of 60% attacking qualities and 40% of defensive qualities, whereas if you play four, because you start slightly deeper than when you play three, it means you are looking for more 60% defensive qualities and maybe 40% attacking qualities. Those are the tactical elements of profiling a player. Mentality is one of the other key elements to look for when you are profiling a player for a big club. Is the player mentally able to deal with the pressure? You do a lot of comprehensive research to understand the player inside out. The personality of the player is important to know about because one needs to have a strong personality to play for a big club. One of the other attributes would be the physical profiling. Certain physical qualities are needed… speed and those aspects. For example, if you are looking for a centre-back, there is a certain minimum required height for that position and that is an important physical profile of that position. Sometimes certain positions, like that of a winger, there you don’t necessarily look for height and other elements, and there maybe you are looking for speed, good technique, and tactical understanding in all phases of play.

MQ: Did you scout only locally? SM: No, as a scout you scout players from all over the world. I watch players from different parts of the world. InStat (Scout, a player database platform with videos, statistics and interactive charts with information on players) is a program that enables you to watch football from all over the world as they cover so many leagues. So, you can literally sit on InStat and watch a player in Portugal, Egypt, Ghana and so on. That is what is referred to as international scouting. There are many ways in which players come and that is maybe what people do not understand about scouting. In scouting, you work with different sources in identifying a player. I mean, you, as a reporter, you report about players and there is a Team of the Week in Soccer Laduma and all those things, and that is what we call a scouting clue. A supporter can talk about a player and you start following up and monitor that player. Or maybe a top local referee was doing a game in Algeria… and I’m making an example… and he comes and talks about a player who did well in that game, and you follow up. Everybody who’s inin volved the game has an opinion and you must have your eyes and ears on the ground.

MQ: Moving on, media reports sugthat gested you’d been suspended by the Soweto giants. What happened?

SM: I was very shocked. There were some false reports, and I’ll put it like that, to be honest. There were reports that suggested that there was a misconduct, but I don’t want to talk much about what happened. But it is very important to clear my name and put it out there that there was never a misconduct. If there was a misconduct, I would have been subjected to a disciplinary hearing and I never sat in a disciplinary hearing. All those reports dented my name. I worked so hard for my career to be where I am. To work at a club like Chiefs, national team at different levels, and to work for a national broadcaster, the SABC… those things don’t fall from the sky, you work for them. I read those reports that were false and I was very disappointed and I was not happy. That is why I decided that for a long time, I didn’t want to talk about these things publicly because there was no truth in them. Just to put the matter to bed, there was no misconduct. Instead, it was a mutual termination between me and the club, and it was the right thing to do at the time. It was the only honourable thing to do at the time and we decided mutually that we’d go our separate ways, but I was never charged for misconduct and I never sat in a disciplinary hearing. Obviously, there are certain things that happened behind the scenes, but none of that had to do with misconduct. If there was misconduct, I should have been fired on the basis that there was such misconduct, which would have to have been proven.

MQ: Maybe ‘misconduct’ was the wrong word used. Was there an error from your side that didn’t sit well with the club?

SM:

Look, this is life, and we are not in a movie here. This is real life and things happen from either side and the only problem is when there are reports that suggest things that did not happen. The reality is that when you are in a working space, there will be things that happen and it’s normal, it’s reality, it’s life. But there was no misconduct that could have led to me being subjected to a DC. It was not a matter of the club saying, “You must go because of one, two and three.” No. It was me meeting with the club to say things happen and changes take place and sometimes the most honourable thing to do when things change is to make a decision. But there was no misconduct from my side and I’m very professional and anybody who has worked with me would know my work ethic and would know my dedication in what I do in my craft. I’m in a process of preparing to go to camp with the national U20s later this month.

MQ: How did you feel about how your Chiefs chapter ended?

SM:

I’m a professional and there are times where you’ve got to come to the level of acceptance and understand that things have changed. But the three years that I was with the club was a great experience and I learnt so much from the club. The club invested in me as they took me to Manchester to study at IPSO (International Professional Scouting Organisation). I’m very grateful to the club and I’m very grateful specifically to Mr Bobby Motaung. From day one, he believed in me and believed in my work. Great gratitude to the chairman (Kaizer Motaung) for the great words of encouragement and complimenting my work and contribution to the club. For that, I’ll forever be grateful. I still love the club, but I’m a professional to know that things didn’t work out and things change, and it was of my best interests to say let’s go our separate ways. I’ll never come here and act as if I didn’t enjoy myself there or say I didn’t learn or didn’t have a good experience with the club. If I were to say that, it would really be unfair to myself and I wouldn’t be honest to myself and the club.

MQ: Mnune, it’s been a pleasure.

SM:

I’m from a sports family and from Ngxwalane, a village that is strong on rugby. I grew up watching sports and I’ve always been passionate about sports, especially football, since a very young age. I’ve always been passionate about coaching, I started coaching at the age of 14 and the love for sports comes from back home and my love for football comes from my father’s side of the family. I don’t look at myself as a great story, I look at myself as an example and a hope to a rural child. I look at myself as a role model to inspire many more to come and to give hope and light to a rural child, but not necessarily only those from the Eastern Cape but from any part of the country. Your background is not your destination because you don’t choose where you are born. Thanks for your time and everything of the best to you, my brother. ❐