The Mbishi Mokoena Development Soccer tournament was launched at Musina last Tuesday.

The well-known young coach of Benny’s Care, Mr Mbishi Mokoena, sponsored the tournament with R20 000 and it will cater for U/12, U/15 and U/17 teams around Limpopo. Mokoena recently took Benny’s Care’s U/12 team to the Danone World Cup in France, where they performed extremely well.

Mokoena said that he was ploughing back into the community and wanted to help to develop young players from grassroots level. When asked why he had decided to stage a tournament in Musina, he said that he believed in the proverbial expression “charity begins at home.”

One of the organisers of the tournament, Mr Gwasda Nedzamba, described Mokoena as "a selfless and caring community developer." He said it was painful to see that many businesspeople did not ploughing anything back into the community. He said most of the soccer stars of yesterday were now penniless and some were even taking ordinary jobs after a life of glory.

“I have come to realize that the soccer career is very short and that many have hit hard times after being in the limelight and leading a life of glamour,” he said.

He said he was also encouraging youngsters to take education seriously and not to rush to make “a quick buck” before securing their future. He emphasised that education is the key that can open closed doors for a sportsman or artist

Twenty U/12 teams, 16 U/15 teams and 12 U/17 12 teams will participate in the tournament that will take place from 5 to 10 December.