21 Jun 2018

The newly appointed technical director of Botswana Football Association (BFA), Serame Letsoaka says his aim is to close the youth development gap between Botswana and top football playing nations.

In his first interaction with the media on June 20, at Lekidi Football Centre, the South Africa born Letsoaka said there was a big gap in our players’ development from the age of six to 14 compared to top footballing nations.

He said the gap was the difference between Botswana and the top footballing countries.

Letsoaka explained that football was like a school where one started at a lower grade and progressed to the university level where one ended up contributing to the economy of the nation.

Letsoaka, a former South Africa Football Association (SAFA) technical director, said he had realised that proper interaction of football development usually started at the age of 14 in Africa.

He said in closing the youth development gap, one of the most important things was focusing on grassroots development programmes.

“This programme is going to help us make sure that we bring as many kids as we can so that we get a great pool,” he noted.

He said the BFA intended to teach youth coaches to understand how to execute the programme under the pillars of youth development and coaching.

Letsoaka further said they would create a platform where they would train technical people in order to facilitate the programme.

He also said they would establish a national playing philosophy, strengthen where there was excellence, improve on weaknesses as well as expose players to appropriate competition.

“If you do not have a DNA of a country it is going to be very difficult. When you promote a player he should be able to adapt appropriately to the next level. The adaptation of players should be smooth,” he said.

Letsoaka said he would work with football legends in the nation to come up with the DNA of football in Botswana.

Letsoaka noted that many countries in the world went through a developmental process to be where they were today. He said the problem with African countries was the shortcuts they had always wanted to take in terms of football development. Ends