Ratomo Among Three DDC Stars Present As Riveiro Makes Stance Clear

Orlando Pirates head coach Jose Riveiro says there’s a clear process in place for promoting youngsters for first-team action as three DStv Diski Challenge stars were present at training on Wednesday morning.

Amidst Rulani Mokwena handing out debuts over the past few weeks, with the league all but mathematically secured already, and Kaizer Chiefs lowering their average age with several academy products making their debuts, questions marks have been raised over the Pirates squad and their reluctance to turn to youth.

Thabiso Monyane and Evidence Makgopa, both 22, are the youngest player used this season across all competitions and five players 30 and older have been signed over the past twelve months leaving question marks around their transfer strategy.

But the likes of Siyabonga Ndlozi, Relebohile Ratomo, and Nduimso Ngiba were present this morning at Rand Stadium and three others have also been in and around the first team but were absent due to recovering from respective injuries.

“Without going so deep, age is just a number in the end, and in football, it’s the same, I don’t really have… I have to answer this question in two different ways,” Riveiro said.

“As a European, the age is not a problem anymore and the reason is the level of knowledge of the players 17 and 18 years old, not only about the understanding of the game but also, sports education, how to become a professional football player, how early they start to live as a professional football player in elite academies.

“Probably… here we have more differences within the clubs and the teams and the academies, we are trying to do things in that way, so players can arrive at the stage of 18, 17, 19, 20 years old well prepared to the step without any doubt or afraid of failure.”

The Spaniard who previously worked as a youth coach at LaLiga outfit Celta Vigo said they could throw in young talent for the sake of it for praise and statistics but they are aiming to first create a pathway for their academy products to be able to make an impact.

“It is easy to make numbers, it’s easy to play young players and for me as a coach, it could also be nice to play every time introducing one player when the result is done and I get the numbers and you can say that Riveiro is really really pushing youngsters,” he continued.

“But we need to push these guys when they are ready to make an impact and have continuity, not just hope, we need to be sure and we need to prepare those guys to have a long career and it’s not as easy as playing them and let’s see what happens.

“But as a philosophy, I don’t care that much if he’s 30, 20, or 18 – as long as I feel he can be helpful for the club, for the future of the club and yeah, they need to be prepared, otherwise it’s just looking for personal records in the end and I’m not looking for that.”