Former Black Leopards CEO Mr Aaron Thidiela is calling on soccer scouts in the Vhembe District to keep on searching for up-and-coming local stars and guide the players properly.
Thidiela, alias Hans Coetzee, is well-known for signing former Mamelodi Sundowns captain Hlompho Kekana and former Leopards winger Matari Netshidzivhe when they were both 16 years old and helping them to become top players in the DStv league.
Thidiela, who is the younger brother of Black Leopards supremo Mr David Thidiela, made his name in the football fraternity when he starred for the then invincible Tshivhase High School in 1972.
"I was playing in the school's junior teams from 1970. When I was in Form 3 (Grade 10) in 1972, I was picked for the senior team and since then I played in every game for the school," he said. He added that, at Tshivhase High School, he had played with great players such as Fondi Ndou, Ace Ndou, Boy Boy Mudau and Duiker Bugana, just to mention a few. "We lost only once that year and became the best soccer team in the then Northern Transvaal," he said.
After he sustained a serious knee injury in 1976, he hung up his soccer boots and became the managing director of Goldville Young Tigers.
At Tigers, they believed in grooming their own players from a very young age and guiding them into becoming first-team players. "We have to develop and nurture players from our junior divisions," he said.
When his elder brother David bought the status of Black Leopards, he became the CEO of the team, where he worked for 11 years.
When asked about the standard of the game in local football, Thidiela said today's players were not as committed to the game as those of yesteryear. "From the premier league to the amateur league, players are no longer committed to the game. They are always in the media for the wrong reasons. Young players no longer have role models," he said.