Tournament benefits rising footballers

Mvutshini Tigers won a football tournament hosted by Trellidor Margate at the Jabavu sports field last Saturday.

The team walked away with gold medals, a training kit, a trophy, and a full team kit with shirts, shorts and socks, all numbered and branded with Trellidor.

According to Mike Sima of the Lower South Coast Football Academy, the franchise owner of Trellidor Margate, Milton Lang, made the tournament possible.

Lang said after reading Sima’s story in the newspaper, he reached out to him and later met with the academy’s committee to discuss how they could host a soccer tournament.

He said he wants people to understand it’s not only about selling products but caring about children living in the area.

Six teams from rural areas outside Margate to Ramsgate participated in the tournament. As a reward, Trellidor Margate supplied training equipment such as hurdles, cones, whistles, stopwatches, stepladders, caps, medals and a trophy.

“We wanted to do something good in our community. We wanted to uplift the experience of the children. I believe that is what we achieved with the soccer clinic with Siyabonga Nomvethe the previous day. This was purely for the children to enjoy,” he said.

Lang added that he noticed some of the players applying the lessons from Nomvethe’s coaching session.

He added that he would love to host soccer clinics and tournaments in other areas when funds are available.

Meanwhile, Sima said it is hard to get sponsored by local businesses for club development on the South Coast.

“I am grateful to Milton, especially for bringing in Siyabonga Nomvethe for the first time to our municipality. His visit motivated and excited the children. I am also thankful to the coaches for also pulling through. I hope we get sponsorship to help us host a bigger tournament and bring Mike Makaab,” he said.

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