The former Bafana Bafana defender Nasief Morris has opened up about his desire to revive football in schools with the inception of a school’s league in Mitchells Plain area.
The 42-year-old former pro player shared his lifelong vision and ambition during the launch of his N5 Football Academy at the Westridge Primary School on Tuesday.
Apart from sharing his plans with the construction of new five a side courts he emphasized the role and importance of school’s football in the development of a player.
“Look, I am getting in touch with the primary and high schools in Mitchells Plain to gauge who all is keen to be part of a league structure and well will make use of the academy’s (football) courts but if there are schools who has their own venue, then matches can be played there as well,” said Morris.
According to Morris he fully is committed to ensure that no talent falls through the proverbial cracks.
Morris explained: “The aim is to use this as a talent identification and where scouting can be done, you know. The reason for this is I believe a lot of the kids don’t get recognition. I remember the way things were done before I became a pro….it was you’d play for the school and you get selected for the Province and from the province team you get selected for the interprovincial tournaments and get selected for the South African under 17 or under 20 national team.
“So those are the (progression) stages that you go through as there’s a bigger variety and pool of players that you get to see in those kinds of leagues and tournaments. There are a lot of talents that get overlooked or doesn’t not make it to that stage. you know.
“If you look at the under 17 and under 20 national teams it is purely selected DDC (Diski) teams and maybe some ABC (Motsepe) League and majority NFD teams because of the Under 23-rule and that’s why there’s youngsters playing there and they are the only players actually looked at for the national teams. And nowadays it’s also who you know and these kinds of things and not purely on talent, you know,” he added.
Morris, who currently resides in the Westgate area in Mitchells Plain attended the Mitchells Plain Primary school during the late eighties School and later attended Princeton High during the nineties.
Hence he knows all too well about rivalry and history of school football and has a first-hand idea of what football was like when he grew up as a youngster with a dream of becoming a professional footballer.
Needless to say, this contributed to the no-nonsense defender to have a successful career in Europe with clubs like Panathinaikos, Recreativo de Huelva and Racing Santander and was at one stage South Africa’s most notable exports.
“So, with the schools league you get to see a lot more talented players who would have never seen if there wasn’t that schools league and that the problem with our development that grassroots and schools football league was massive for me and in my time when I grew up playing and it just disappeared.
“So, starting off in Mitchells Plain I want to bring that back as an opportunity to give these kids a chance to maybe become a professional player as well,” Morris concluded.
