Bafana Bafana legend Delron Buckley is currently furthering his coaching career by undertaking an internship with the Bundesliga 2 club, Arminia Bielefeld.
Buckley’s internship at Bielefeld is a continuation of the club’s established connection with South Africa. For the past four years, Bielefeld has built partnerships focused on football development within the country.
The 47-year-old is no stranger to the club, having played for Bielefeld during the 2004/05 season after joining them from VFL Bochum. He continues his collaboration with the club after he was appointed as their ambassador in 2023.
Buckley flew out to Germany this month and initially observed the Bielefeld first team. This week, he will move on to shadow the technical team of the Under-21 squad.
“Delron is here for an internship, so we will try and involve him in every part of our training sessions, analysis as well going into the pitch,” said the the club’s Academy director Finn Holsing.
“He can have a good inside look in everything we do in our under 21 team. They will communicate with the under 21 technical team including the head coach.
“So, he will join every part of every session.”
Meanwhile, Buckley said, “I have been with the first team for the past five days.”
“I sat down with them, learning about scouting, how it works. And it’s phenomenal, I have not seen anything like that in my life on how this club scouts players in a different level.
“Then I learnt how the technical team for the first team prepare themselves. It’s a never-ending story how this guys work well together.”
Buckley’s coaching career began with his stint at AmaZulu where he worked as an assistant manager from February to April 2016 and as a caretaker manager later that year.
He then served as the interim head coach of Maritzburg United in 2020 and as an assistant coach later.
He was appointed head coach of the University of KwaZulu-Natal [UKZN] soccer programme in 2021.
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