The partnership between Mnya Sport Academy and a Chippa United MDC side is expected to yield positive results in the near future for young rural footballers.
Chippa United MDC has already shown a huge interest in five players from the rural academy.
The players targeted by the Chilli Boys Development include Yondela Ntingiso, Aviwe Peto, Piwokuhle Mareledwane, Sinesipho Kiya and Lungile Butsoko.
The Chippa United MDC team recently played a friendly match against Mnya Sport Academy, where they lost 1-0. Scouts from Chippa United were charmed by other Mnya Academy stars, too.
Chippa United MDC head coach, Siyabulela Gwambi, said they had good intentions by visiting the Nyandeni Municipality.
“In the near future, we would like to have a player from here and we want to say that June 2021 is where the partnership started.”
Gwambi said that Chippa would like the relationship to be ongoing.
Glen Minnie, the head of development for Chippa United, said that for the first time in the club’s history, they have an Eastern Cape-born coach who took a senior team to the Nedbank Cup final and mentioned that were very proud of their coach’s achievements.
“We are very passionate about local development – my heart beats for sport development.”
“We are very excited to be here as a MultiChoice Diski team.”
“We want this relationship to grow and one day, for Mnya to visit Gqeberha and see more of these players.”
Minnie said they wanted to take a few players and give them exposure to feel how things are done in professional football and how training sessions are conducted.
“We need to have the Nyandeni project, where we’ll have one player from here to play in the PSL – it will change the whole community. Signing a contract with a PSL team changes everything, your family and your community.”
He further encouraged young stars that, “When you have made it into professional football, you must adopt somebody in sports development, buy him soccer boots, et cetera.”
