I Hope To See Sanity Prevailing

David Notoane is every young South Africanplayer’s dream coach, having played the game at the highest level and earned his stripes as a coach in the junior ranks.

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He is currently the Mamelodi Sundowns MultiChoice Diski Challenge head coach and was not so long ago appointed to be at the helm of Amaglug-glug, a move met with good sentiment in the local soccer fraternity. The immediate task is simple: qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, and standing in the way of our national U23 side fulfilling that dream in the qualifiers starting on November 8 in Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Zambia, pitted in the same group as Mzansi. Can our talented team do it? What are the challenges going into this tournament? Notoane outlines it all in this frank conversation with Soccer Laduma’s Beaver Nazo.

Beaver Nazo: David, we haven’t spoken to you since you were appointed head coach of the national U23 side, so first and foremost, congratulations are in order.

David Notoane: Thank you, my brother. I thought I am too dark, too beautiful and too South African to be congratulated, ha, ha, ha.

BN: How’s it been?

DN: Well, so far, so good. It hasn’t been easy. I mean, it took a lot of hard work juggling between this and Mamelodi Sundowns (where Notoane is MDC coach). It comes with a lot of hard work. Getting times right and everything has been hectic because I couldn’t just drop Sundowns and commit to SAFA without a long-term financial commitment from their side, you know. That is why I had to get the balance to say: can I do both? So, yeah, juggling between the two hasn’t been easy, but it is all about leadership and commitment.

BN: How are you finding the support from the clubs and the mother body?