Former Orlando Pirates maestro Makola, who is now involved with ABC Motsepe League side Via Sport, says watching Tshabalala work behind the scenes at the Sea Robbers opened his eyes to a different side of football.
Instead of focusing only on coaching after retirement, the former midfielder became fascinated by recruitment and squad building.
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MAKOLA EXPLAINS ORLANDO PIRATES LEGEND’S INSPIRATION
The former Free State Starts, and Cape Town City midfielder currently coaches and co-owns Viasport FC in the SAFA Johannesburg Hollywoodbets Regional.
Speaking on the NXL360 YouTube Channel, Makola explained how Tshabalala’s role at Pirates inspired him to think beyond the touchline.
“I’ve always had this vision of being a Technical Director, you know how much I loved Bra Stan’s job (at Pirates), Bra Stan would just sit there, find good players and bring them at Pirates and those players would make magic,” Makola said, as quoted by Soccer Laduma’s Thato Bosoga.
“I’m coaching now and the team is doing very well, I’m loving the journey, even though it’s very hard and tricky but slowly but surely I’ll get there. I’m a co-owner, I’m the shareholder of the team but I’m also a head coach.”
The former Orlando Pirates midfielder says the long-term vision is much bigger than where the club currently finds itself.
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Via Sport currently has teams competing in both the SAB League and the ABC Motsepe League, with Makola hoping the project can eventually climb into professional football.
“We have two divisions, a team in the SAB and a team in the ABC (Motsepe League). Hopefully when one day the team gets to the PSL I’ll sit as a technical director or whatever but not as a coach,” he added.
Makola also addressed long-standing rumours around Tshabalala’s influence during his time at Orlando Pirates. For years there were claims that the respected football administrator interfered in team selections.
“He (Tshabalala) would come to training, people don’t understand that Bra Stan would actually sit in the stands and watch training, every training session and whatever the coach knew or saw, Bra Stan would see it too,” he added.
Makola explained that Tshabalala simply questioned decisions whenever something did not make sense from what he had observed at training.
“So obviously if he saw that this player didn’t train well but he’s in the line-up, he would ask questions. Maybe that but otherwise he was not choosing the scheme (line-up),” the former Orlando Pirates superstar added.
