Players urged to tap into branding
Kabelo Boranabi | Friday March 27, 2020 17:00
Speaking to Mmegi Sport, Nthoiwa said in local football where the majority of the players earn chump change, they should look for opportunities outside the football field as they stand a better chance at making money through their public status.
“Football branding is very important for our players, it presents an opportunity for them to make more money without even kicking the ball. They should know how to brand themselves to attract the interest of private companies,” he said.
“It is a norm across the world that players are brand ambassadors for companies, not only sports companies. Locally players seem not to be aware of this trend, to this date we do not have a player with an endorsement deal, which is worrying.” Through his agency, he said his target is to help local players get personal endorsement deals.
Nthoiwa has been a FIFA accredited agent since 2012 based locally, and in Slovakia and Ireland. In his eight years as a player representative he has taken three local players to Europe for trials.
His first assignment was former Extension Gunners’ attacker Emmanuel Masisi, Motlakase Power Dynamos’ Ronald Kefilwe and Thato Ramatebele formerly with Gaborone United.
Nthoiwa said the European leagues are better suited for local players rather than the South African league, which has seen an influx of players from the national league. He, however, said local players are not yet mentally ready to thrive in Europe.
“Mentally, our players are not ready to play at the highest level in Europe. They are not hungry enough to make it, I believe our environment is to blame for this. Our players are too relaxed; there is too much luxury where they play so they do not see the need to work harder unlike their African counterparts. Of course the money is good in South Africa, but we should look at the long-term benefit of our deals. There is proper development in European teams than in South Africa thus players will improve in their game while playing in Europe. It does not matter where you play, but if you got the talent and right attitude you can easily be snapped up by a big team in Europe,” he said.
Nthoiwa also mentioned the Dutch, Portuguese, French, Austrian and Belgian lower leagues as a perfect destination for local players to kickstart their European careers.
Often agents and club management fail to find common ground during contract negotiations. The representatives are seen to be exploiting both clubs and players to line their pockets.
“It is a misconception, sadly we see that a lot locally. We are not enemies of the management; we represent the best interests of our clients. It comes from the (club) leadership, they do not understand our role. We take care of the business side of the players while they should just focus on the field. But it is sad that we have those agents that use players to eat, it paints a bad image on our profession. Players should have registered and qualified agents,” Nthoiwa said.