Gudluhuza FC coach nominated for Kasie Ballon D’Or award

The head coach and club manager of Gudluhuza FC, Themba Gudlhuza, has been nominated for best development manager of the year at the Kasie Ballon D’Or football awards.

Gudluhuza holds accolades for the 2018 South African Men of The Year sports category and the 2019 U17 Club Owner of The Year at Eden Park Local Football Association.

The 49-year-old coach looks to add a new award to his catalogue as he calls on the Kathorus community to vote for him by sending an SMS with the keywords KasieBD GDZ to 40439.

He was born in 1973 at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, Soweto, and moved to Giyani, Limpopo, where he attended school.

He started his career as a soccer player competing in school competitions at Sukani Primary School and Giyani High School.

He later joined local teams like Napoli FC where he participated in the national junior league named Caltex Colts Junior Soccer League before moving to Giyani Classique FC, which campaigned in the SAB Castle League in 1995.
He said after completing matric he enrolled for a national diploma in human resources at the Technicon Northern Transvaal, where he continued playing football.

“I was part of the newcomers’ soccer squad which played and defeated the technikon’s senior team, which was the first since the technikon’s inception. I dropped out of the technikon in 1998 to seek job employment,” said Gudluhuza.

His playing days ended in 2003 after he broke his leg while he was employed by Statistics South Africa. In 2016 his involvement in sports was revived when he noticed a lot of children in his community at Ext 8, Palmridge, Tsietsi Section in Katlehong, are exposed to the risk of falling into drug use and crime.

“I started a soccer team and named it Gudlhuza Football Club. It only had the U13 division playing friendly games.
“After observing that there were many teams only playing friendly and gambling matches, I initiated a junior soccer league called Palmridge Junior soccer league, which had two divisions – U13 and U15,” he continued.

“I was elected the treasurer of the league and was pleased that football was revived in my community.”

Gudlhuza FC was affiliated with the Eden Park local football association under SAFA in 2018. It was crowned the 2018 league champions for the U15 in its first league season under the SAFA affiliates league.

The club has grown immensely since 2016. It currently has four divisions including U11, U13, U15 and U17.
However, because of a lack of sponsorship, they are unable to have a senior team as the demand for running the seniors is much more expensive.

“We then serve as a feeder team to senior teams and football academies in Gauteng. The team is now able to participate in competitions in the Gauteng province during school holidays and ensure that children are kept active and away from the dangers of drugs and crime.

“We also do leadership camps where we take our players to camps to teach them life skills and leadership skills that will help them to cope with life’s challenges,” he said.

Achievements as club owner

• 2017 PJSL U15 league winner.

• 2017 PJSL U13 league cup winner.

• 2018 PJSL U13 cup winner.

• 2018 PJSL U13 league cup winner.

• 2018 PJSL U13 league winner.

• 2018 EPLFA U15 winner.

• 2019 Spartan Easter games U11 winner.

• 2019 Tsietsi community games U17 winner.

• 2021 Gomora heritage games U13 winner.

• 2021 Gomora heritage games U15 winner.

• 2021 KALFA league U15 winner.

• 2021 KALFA league U17 winner.

• 2022 Red Lions Easter games U13 winner.

• 2022 DSD June 16 U9 cup winner.

Commenting on his recent nomination, Gudluhuza said it is an honour to be recognised for the work he is doing developing footballers from the grassroots level.

“As development coaches, we sacrifice a lot to football, without any expectations. Just being nominated is motivation enough to keep playing my part in football development in my community,” he concluded.

The award ceremony will be held at Alberton Hall, on December 10 and the closing date for votes is on October 31.