David Nyathi, Safa, 2021Backpagepix

Nyathi: Former Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates star lands top Safa job

Former Kaizer Chiefs and Orlando Pirates left-back David Nyathi has been appointed as a South African Football Association national teams chief scout. 

The retired left-back, who is a member of the Bafana Bafana squad which won the 1996 Afcon, served as a youth coach at the now-defunct Ajax Cape Town.

Safa technical committee chairperson Jack Maluleka has revealed that Nyathi, 53, will be heading the organisation's national teams scouting department and that he will be assisted by another former player.

“David is the head of scouting, he’s in North West. We’ll also reveal another name of a former player that will be part of this scouting [network],” Maluleka told SABC Sport

 “We have the technical centre, so what we want is for the scouts to get these players on a monthly basis, maybe during the holidays, to the technical centre."

Maluleka also explained that the duo will travel both nationally and internationally to source talent for future Bafana Bafana and Banyana Banyana selection. 

“They will be scouting all over the country, including internationally, and make sure players are coming there and they assess them, along with all the coaches, whether Banyana Banyana or Bantawana – they must be there," he continued.

“That way we’ll have a pool [of players] and, as coaches, they will not be going around and instead can make sure they confine themselves to technical aspects on the field. 

“That’s what we want to do for the next coming term because we don’t have coaches – if we know there’s a program of Cosafa, all of a sudden within three days say, ‘Let’s get players’," he added.

“Sometimes teams don’t want to release players but if you know that this player has been marked or elected on this level, we have an A, B, C team… We’ve got all the players.”

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