Premier Soccer League legend Teko Modise has not held back when discussing the showboating issue within the development structures of South African football.
Orlando Pirates DStv Diski Challenge side has gone viral this season for extreme cases of showboating, despite being in contention for the title this season.
While many have praised some of the talented players rising within Joseph Makhanya’s squad with several even training with Jose Riveiro’s first-team, there’s a case for the incidents to be eliminated completely, with Modise advocating for skills with purpose.
“I mean, look, I have a serious problem with that. Right? My problem is this. We are encouraging, what we can’t use,” he said in Edition 100 of iDiski Times.
“Because what we see from these young players doing that at that junior level, they won’t be able to do them in the PSL. So we are encouraging what they can’t do.
“And most of the time those skills don’t win you games. We are seeing showboating, a lot of showboating and we think those players can play.
“The PSL is a business, the business side, so therefore, we tend not to develop players with the right information, with the right basics, because we watch a lot of TV, we watch the Champions League, we watch big games.
“If you look at what they do right, it’s the basics. The first thing that they do right is the basics. In South Africa, the first thing that we do right is skills. Basics are less. Hence you see players can’t even pass a five-meter pass.
“Those are basics. So then in the development sides, we don’t do the basics right. Hence we see the players when they come to the professional setup, they struggle.”
Modise, who himself was a late bloomer to become one of the most recognised figures in South African football and a mainstay in the senior national team towards the 2010 FIFA World Cup, says the praise for showboating when the fundamentals of football are not being developed is the current Achilles heel of developing elite talent.
“You’re like, ‘but this boy, I’ve seen him at 15, he had so much potential,'” he continued.
“It’s because we don’t do the basics right. And you look at the coaching departments in South Africa. We have a lot of European coaches that come in. They fight on basics.
“So therefore you don’t see players that are showboating and people are like ‘yeah, that’s the South African style’. No, no, no, that’s never been our South African style!
“When Doctor Khumalo was playing for the national team, it was going forward. When Helman Mkhalele was playing for the national team, John Shoes Moshoeu, they were going forward.
“That’s the ’96 team that won. Why now are we encouraging something that we’ve never done before? But on the other side, we want to start winning.”
Modise, who won every trophy on offer in South African football during his stay at Mamelodi Sundowns admits he was guilty of the same offense whilst at the Buccaneers, and he pointed reference to revolving door at the club – for those ‘showboaters’.
“For instance, look at Orlando Pirates, I was playing for Pirates and I was one of the players as well that would showboat at times,” Modise explained.
“If you look at the number of players who were at Orlando Pirates that were showboaters, none of them stayed more than two years.
“They’re the first ones to go. Because we sometimes forget that this is a business, we need to bring results.
“Yes, we can please the crowd, but when and how. And I think that ‘when’ is something that we are missing as well. I think if we can know the when and how – I think that will actually help the most skillful players in the country.”
You can read the full interview with Modise, where he also reveals how showboating almost ended his Bafana Bafana career, and why certain players are not making it at Orlando Pirates, in Edition 100 of iDiski Times, which is available for free on our website.
