When Vasco Da Gama’s then-owner Mario Ferreira decided to relocate from Cape Town to Stellenbosch, no one could’ve predicted what would happen in the future.
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Vasco was and remains a popular Portuguese- heritage club in Parow. The club had a season in the Premiership in 2010/2011, and many will remember that campaign with Sibusiso Zuma starring for the team.
But the club lived in the shadow of their neighbours Ajax Cape Town… literally.
Just a road separates the home bases of Vasco and Ajax, and there was always a clear disparity between the two. Ajax’s facilities were top-class, arguably the best in the PSL at the time, but Vasco still resembled the neighbourhood club it had grown from.
Stellenbosch had a burgeoning football community, but they lacked a professional team. So the move suited all involved, and Vasco wouldn’t be constantly reminded of their stature by their neighbours.
It was still early days, and when they moved, the club only had two Stellenbosch natives in their squad, former Ajax striker Alcardo Van Graan (who famously scored against Manchester United), and young Luke Le Roux, who is now a full Bafana Bafana international and plying his trade in Sweden.
While it was the end of Vasco (who do, however, still exist in junior and women’s football) it was the start of Stellenbosch Football Club as we know it now.
And this is where Steve Barker comes into the picture. Only one person has been at the club longer than Barker – captain Rafiq De Goede, who is the sole survivor of the Vasco generation.
Barker, the former Tuks and AmaZulu head coach, had joined up to be Sammy Troughton’s assistant in December 2016. After a number of years in Tshwane, where Barker had taken Tuks from the amateur ranks right up to the Premiership, the former Wits midfielder took on the challenge of trying to save a struggling Usuthu from relegation. The risk failed, and Barker’s boyhood club went down to the National First Division.
With five games remaining in the following campaign, and it clear that AmaZulu was not going to win the league, the club parted ways with Barker. The then-owners, the Sokhelas, would go on to buy Thanda Royal Zulu’s Premiership status, thus returning Usuthu to the top flight, while Richards Bay would be founded after Thanda’s demise.
A few months later Barker took a step back and accepted the assistant role with Troughton, his former right-hand man at Tuks. At the end of the season Stellies finished third, but despite coming so close to promotion, just missing out in the playoffs, the club opted not to renew with the Northern Irishman.
Barker’s contract was a little trickier as he had only joined the club seven months earlier, and so Ferreira chose to keep the former Tuks and AmaZulu coach, and in fact, they decided to name him the new Head Coach.
And a year later, the move to Stellenbosch took another turn when the Stellenbosch Academy of Sport decided they would purchase the franchise.
It paid off dividends and Stellenbosch were promoted to the DStv Premiership in the first year of their five-year plan to become a competitive top-flight side.
Reflecting back, Barker spoke about that five-year plan, and how their goalposts shifted as they continued to be ahead of their initial targets.
“Ja, look, I think that was the initial plan, that was a five-year (plan) and we obviously got promoted in the first year of it,” Barker told iDiski Times.
“So I think we’re ahead of schedule, I think the first three seasons are always a tough time in the PSL to just establish yourself. So I think within the five years, we’ve not only got promoted, but we’ve established ourselves as a competitive team.
“I think a new cycle is now to continue to be consistent in that competitiveness at the higher end of the league table. And if we can just continue to lay the structures at the bottom like we are doing, going forward, we can be a formidable club in the country.
“But there’s still a lot of work to be done. Still a youthful team at this current stage, the first team. We brought a lot of players at that age, as opposed to a lot of over-thirties that we had. And that’ll take a little bit of time for them to really play together as a unit, and as a team.
“And I do believe that if we can just keep all our talent, which will always be a challenge, we can then really be a competitive team in the PSL.”
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In this edition of iDiski Times, we talk to former Kaizer Chiefs player Daniel Cardoso, who reveals how Steve Komphela and Eric Tinkler changed his career, he also talks about how Sekhukhune can rise up the table. We also spoke to SAFA’s new Technical Director, Walter Steenbok and the former Kaizer Chiefs scout explains how he wants fix South African football, while former Bafana Bafana international turned player agent Lance Davids shares his views on the current “soft” generation of players and why he believes Teboho Mokoena can still go to Europe in future. We also spoke to Romain Folz, who explains his inspiration from Carlo Ancelotti, while in the rumours section we heard about Erwin Saavedra’s injury setback and Thembinkosi Lorch’s extended issues on the sidelines. Read the full edition of iDiski Times below:
