Ahead of Swallows’ game against Marumo Gallants on Sunday, Dylan Kerr met with Limpopo communities to hand over a donation of football boots and equipment to those in need.
Kerr, who is no stranger to the area, having coached Baroka, Black Leopards and Gallants (albeit when they were known as Tshakhuma) and he has a close relationship with the province and its people.
Kerr said the BootsForAfrica initiative started when he visited a football tournament last year, and friends from around the world started a campaign to get donated equipment.
“I’m here to donate tackies and indoor shoes to local children from Limpopo rural areas, and also from Polokwane,” Kerr told the gathered media at the handover.
“Some good teams coming here, it’s great to see girls teams here. But it all started from one picture that I tweeted about 18 months ago when I went to watch a football tournament, and saw one kid take his boots off, leave them on the sideline and another kid put the boots on.
“And it was just one of those moments that I took a picture. I sent it on Twitter, and my friend Darren Lilley, who’s a big West Ham United fan, put out an appeal to people, clubs, people that have been able to donate football boots or football equipment.
“And I think in total, I think we had over a thousand pairs of boots and we’ve been able to split them up. Aome went to Gambia, some went to Sierra Leone and we brought the majority to South Africa. We brought it to Limpopo where it all started. ”
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Gallants host Swallows at the Peter Mokaba Stadium in a DStv Premiership fixture this afternoon.
“Well, it’s all about Swallows FC now,” Kerr continued.
“You can’t keep looking at results, TS Galaxy won yesterday I said to them, forget it. We’ve got six games. I’ve been in this position before three times, with the same amount of games, and it’s the same amount of points, and it’s achievable. At the end of the day, I pick the best team to play the game, that best team has got to go and perform.
“We’ve been absolutely outstanding, I’ll be honest, we’ve been outstanding with the way that we play, the intensity, the chances that we create. But as you saw last night at Chiefs and SuperSport, if you don’t finish and you don’t put it back in the net, you’re always susceptible to that counterattack, and that’s what happened with SuperSport last night. So we’ve got to look after Swallows FC, make sure that we stay in the PSL.”
