The worst thing a footballer can do is to have no plan for retirement. Lerato Manzini has been away from the spotlight for some time and he is using this period wisely, to build what could turn out to be one of the biggest projects in the local game.
In his home province of the Free State, Manzini has started the Welkom Football Academy, a new chapter in his life. Manzini, a former Bloemfontein Celtic and SuperSport United striker, has not retired yet from the game, but has established an academy that he hopes will have a big influence on South African football.
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"It has been ongoing in terms of talks with the stakeholders. I wanted something different because I believe, as Free State, we can do a lot for football. For me, it's about giving the children proper opportunities in life. This was my idea of the football academy. I reached out to some big stakeholders. At first, they were reluctant when I pitched the idea to them because they wanted to do things like coaching clinics. But I felt that would be a waste of time, so I gave them a broader idea," Manzini said to the Siya crew.
"It's about the entire community because this academy is going to employ coaches in every division. We are going to have an assistant coach in every division. We are going to have the ladies who are going to cook and clean at the academy. All these people will come from Welkom, you understand? When we employ people, they will be able to feed their families."
The academy has four age groups, under-15, 17, 19 and 21. Manzini has a dream of seeing players from the Welkom Football Academy playing overseas and would love to see some of Europe's top clubs coming to South Africa to play against his players.
"An academy has to be productive. As we speak, I have so many agents and chairmen at an international level. The plan is simple. It's not only about football development. We are going to develop them on a social level. We are going to mentor them," Manzini said.
"My plan is to take the players overseas as young as possible. We are going to have a setup that will teach the boys a lot of things. I want to break that international barrier. I wish to see a player from this academy playing in the UEFA Champions League. I also want to bring big international clubs to Welkom, but that means we need to work hard and they need to see that we are doing things at a professional level. We are in the building phase for now."
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Clinton Larsen, who parted ways with Betway Premiership club Magesi FC in December, will join the academy. He will be assiting the academy as a young coaches coordinator and he will be helping with the assessment of players. Vladislav Heric, a former Chippa United coach, will be the under-19 coach.
"Heric is going to work with the under-19s and he is also going to coach the coaches. He is going to work with coaches who don't have coaching licenses and we are going to help them get licenses. We have to empower our own. Coach Heric is a Serbian who knows a lot of things about development. He did a lot for the Ajax Cape Town development, but people don't know that," Manzini said.
