Mamelodi Sundowns first team coach Steve Komphela has called for change in South African football, urging players and coaches to eradicate the stigma around mental health.
Football players, such as athletes in other sports, must thrive under pressure from pre-competition nervousness, pressure to succeed, competition within the squad and much more.
Mental health is not often a topic that comes up during conversations around the local game, while other athletes like tennis icons Serena Williams and Naomi Osaka or multiple Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps opened up about dealing with depression.
Komphela has now discussed the topic in the latest edition of the Mamelodi Sundowns Digital Magazine, calling on the local football fraternity to take the topic more serious.
“Now, what stops our athletes from doing the same?” asks Komphela.
#AD: Choose any unlimited 4G or 5G plan. Only start paying next month.
“These [the aforementioned] are top athletes and the same should reflect in South Africa. There’s this phenomenon of competition and the one thing about success in sports is that the very same success could be causing trauma. As such, we need to have mental and emotional interventions.
“Every athlete, just like everyone else in society, has problems. And those problems need solutions. There’s no way in the environment we find ourselves where there is high performance, extreme pressure and you don’t have an outlet to voice your mental health challenges.
“The catch is: you need to understand exactly where the problem lies if you want to find a cure or a solution for such.”
Komphela has also urged coaches to take note of their player’s different needs because they are humans and not machines.
“Coaches are not psychologists, but you need to get closer to understanding the state of emotions and not the state of the mind only,” he added.
“We need to understand that we are dealing with human beings. The pressure that is put on you as a coach should not be transferred to the player.”
