Safa president Danny Jordaan said the association is considering bringing legendary coach Arsène Wenger to South Africa next month to share his wisdom on coaching, development and grassroots football.
“We’ve engaged with Fifa, CAF and Arsène Wenger on exactly how we build and grow competitive teams.
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“Quite interesting, in his own observation, and maybe in March, we’ll bring him here so that you [journalists] can speak to him,” Jordaan said on the sidelines of Safa’s national executive meeting in Kempton Park, east of Johannesburg, at the weekend.
Jordaan added:
He [Wenger] has a report where he has made an evaluation of every country. He talks about increasing global competitiveness and things like that. That report says all of that and it is there.
Jordaan did not say whether the former Arsenal coach’s visit would be at Safa or Fifa’s invitation.
But the three-time Premier League winner, in his capacity as chief of global football development for Fifa, is leading the world governing body’s biggest-ever audit into the future of football.
Since last year, the 73-year-old Frenchman has been crisscrossing the world engaging with as many national football associations on aspects, such as how to protect the future of the sport.
Key among Wenger’s focus areas is how to improve grassroots football and the passage into the professional game and gaining access to pitches.
Wenger’s visit will be warmly welcomed in South Africa as local governing body Safa struggles to get a firm grip on the development of players and coaches at a grassroots level.
Wenger retired from football management in 2018 after ending a 22-year tenure as Arsenal coach.
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Safa is one of over 200 football associations across all confederations that have signed up for Fifa’s first Talent Development Programme.
The list comprises, among others, the current men’s and women’s world champions, France and the US, as well as member associations that have never qualified for a Fifa tournament.
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