University of Pretoria coach Kwanele Kopo says what pains him the most from the SuperSport United sale is the number of kids who will no longer have the opportunity to be produced through the club’s academy.
SuperSport have been sold to Siwelele Football Club, ending their successful era in the Premier Soccer League. During their time, Matsatsantsa a Pitori produced a number of players from their academy who went on to be successful. Players such as Ronwen Williams, Teboho Mokoena, Daine Klate, Shandre Campbell and Sipho Mbule, among others, came through the club’s development structures.
Kopo, who spent the majority of his coaching career in the development phases of SuperSport, said he hopes the club will be revived in the future and the academy continue to be a success.
“For me, it’s not the trophies that SuperSport won, it’s the lives that were changed. It’s the kids that we produced, it’s the kids that we took from one-room homes, from shacks, and we made them multimillionaires through football,” Kopo explains to Sowetan.
For me, it’s not the trophies that SuperSport won, it’s the lives that were changed. It’s the kids that we produced, it’s the kids that we took from one-room homes, from shacks, and we made them multimillionaires through footbal
— Kwanele Kopo
“Maybe all that will still be there but in a different form and a different place. So, it’s very painful for me, and I really wish all the people that are involved, the players, the staff, right up to the ladies that cook for these young players, I really wish them strength in this process.”
Siwelele is owned by Calvin le John, who is sports minister Gayton McKenzie’s son, and Kopo has expressed concern that the club may suffer the same fate as Bidvest Wits.
Wits sold their top-flight franchise to Tshakhuma Tsha Madzivhandila in 2020 and have since faded into obscurity despite their rich history in SA football.
“It makes me a bit emotional. It’s heartbreaking, to be honest, to think of the colleagues that I left there and the players at the club. I saw a post with trophies and it was captioned: ‘The end of an era’,” he said.
“I hope that they will really be justifiably rewarded if they are to be out of the club but if it’s just a change of name, I still wish the club the best. But SuperSport United is a name that will never leave our hearts.
“And what SuperSport has done for SA and African football, I think many will take a lot of time to even match it.”
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