While Cape Town City FC fights to escape the doldrums of South Africa’s second tier, their newly appointed director of football, Andries Ulderink, has unveiled his astonishing vision to transform the club into Africa’s best youth development academy.
Ulderink returned to the Mother City for the second time after his initial stint at the helm of the now-defunct Ajax Cape Town.
This time, the revered Dutch football coach is on a mission to turn CT City into a premier academy, not just in South Africa, but on the continent. Ulderink, who joins compatriot Jan Vreman at the club, is undeterred and views the club’s relegation as a catalyst for a root-and-branch rebuild.
“This is a project where we want to have one of the best youth academies in Africa,” Ulderink told FARPost in an exclusive interview. “And that takes time, especially when you’re in the NFD [National First Division] … everybody knows the money in the NFD is not good, and you need a little bit of money to get facilities, to get the right coaches, to get the food, the housing, all those kinds of things. But that triggers me.”
ULDERINK’S GRANULAR STRATEGY AND AGE-FOCUSED DEVELOPMENT
Ulderink’s CV, which includes a stint as assistant manager at German giants Bayer Leverkusen under Erik ten Hag and Belgium’s Royal Antwerp, is impressive with experience across Europe and Africa. His City plan focuses on unlocking the “huge potential” he sees in South African youth and applying a rigorous, global methodology.
“We’ve got a couple of trials this week and last week, and when you see the potential of these boys… I think it’s huge,” he added. “But now it comes to getting the right training programs, continuity and the physical part of the training, the mental part of the training, the nutrition… we need to get into a good program and then stick to that.”
The 56-year-old’s strategy is granular, focused on age-specific development. He revealed that the club would soon introduce an Under-12 side where they will focus on the technical base. At the Under 16-18 level, he indicated that the focus will shift to mental development, learning to win games, and position-specific physical demands. Thereafter, it will be the first team integration.
Crucially, the former Rangers assistant coach vows to overhaul the modern trend of physical coaches dictating training sessions, a perceived flaw he observed at the highest levels in Europe.
“I’m also very critical of what I’ve seen in the last years. On the highest level, I’ve seen more and more that the physical coaches take over the programs,” he argued. “I want to get rid of that… You need to get it integrated… Not only football, not only the physical, you need to integrate it.”
CAPE TOWN CITY HOST UPINGTON CITY
CT City are currently in 12th position in the Motspe Foundation Championship table with 12 points from 10 games, and the immediate goal is to reclaim their top-flight status. However, Ulderink’s long-term vision offers the club the chance to rebuild the entire structure from the ground up.
“That project, that challenge, triggers me a lot. And I’m highly motivated to get that done,” he said.
Cape Town City will host Upington City FC at the Athlone Stadium on Saturday afternoon [15:30] as they aim to secure maximum points and climb the league table.
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