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30 January, 2023
#3 Talent Pool
Good morning!
We are way past the halfway mark in the DStv Premiership and it seems like there is no way of catching up with defending champions, Mamelodi Sundowns.
While nothing is set in stone, if the team wins the league yet again this season, it will be their sixth consecutive title and their eighth in 10 seasons.
Sundowns’ talent pool is largely made possible by their financial muscle, which has always been the case even before it became an undeniable powerhouse. And, since the Pitso Mosimane era, it seems like their scouting department has been helping perfect the formula.
I mention this because even though Mosimane kept losing key members of his squad in his time as head coach of the Tshwane giants – such as Leonardo Castro, Khama Billiat, Keagan Dolly, Ramahlwe Mphahlele, Percy Tau and Bongani Zungu – equally good replacements were always standing by, ready to do the job that won him five league titles in his eight-year tenure with the team.
This makes me wonder if intentional and continuous scouting is the missing element for the other Premier Soccer League (PSL) clubs, who just haven’t been able to do enough to crack it consistently in the past decade.
What’s very clear is that local teams need to go back to the drawing board because they seem to be struggling to keep up with the modern demands of the game.
In today’s edition:
⚽ Core players
🎂 Age is not just a number
👁️ This week’s profile: Walter Steenbok, the scouting boffin
📺 Where to watch local women’s sports
Before we get into it, if you have suggestions, critiques or comments, please do share them with me.
Mamaili
⚽ Key players
DStv Premiership squad sizes are in the spotlight again. Golden Arrows and Kaizer Chiefs have among the fewest registered players but the largest number of players that spend 50% or more of the game time on the field.
Both clubs are also two of four teams, along with Supersport United and Stellenbosch FC, that had an above-average showing in this regard. One in three players at these clubs played more than half of their team’s total minutes. Meanwhile, nine clubs were below the league’s average (23%), with very few of their players playing more than 50% of their team’s total game time all season.
A total of 649 players were registered in 2021/22 across the PSL's 16 clubs, an average of 40 players per team. Of these, 60% played for less than 50% of the total minutes played by their teams, 23% played for 50% or more of the total minutes played by their teams, and 17% never appeared in an official match at all.
One would think defending champions Mamelodi Sundowns – with the highest number of matches played last season, including their exploits in Africa – would have had more players getting more game time, but this simply was not the case.
And then there’s TS Galaxy. Much like the rest of the clubs below the league’s average, it registered 47 players last season but only eight of those – that’s 17% of its total squad size – played for more than 50% of the game time in the club’s 32 official matches last season. I mean, why? I only have one thing to say about that: it may be high time for squad size limits in the PSL!
🎂 The young and the restless
Have you ever wondered why most football players in the DStv Premiership are usually within the same age group (25 to 29)? That’s because clubs typically acquire players who don't come with the added burden of having to be trained up.
Footballers have very short careers, and depending on when they start playing professionally, their playing careers rarely last longer than 20 years. A footballer in the 25 to 29 age group is considered a peak player, who is ready to play immediately and will most likely reach their best years during this phase.
South African Football Association (Safa) international technical scout and performance analyst Sinesipho Mali explains the other age categories as follows:
- 16 to 19 years: Youngster
These are players with the prospect of being good in future if developed properly. Youngsters are usually the least represented age group in the DStv Premiership.
- 20 to 24 years: Pre-peak
These are players who are neither youngsters nor senior players. They may need a bit more time to adjust to the requirements of the professional stage and cement themselves within their teams.
- 30 to 35 years: Experienced
These are players who are usually in the ‘winding down’ phase of their careers, but because of their experience, they are almost guaranteed to have an immediate and positive impact on the field of play.
Peak players made up most of the players who were registered for the 2021/22 season, which has been the case for the past 10 full seasons, with the league’s average age falling within this age group during this time.
Depending on their objectives when acquiring new talent during the transfer window, clubs will sign a youngster they can groom into a future star, a pre-peak player who is ‘almost there’, a peak player who they can get the most out of, or a post-peak player who can stabilise the ship if that’s what is required at that stage.
👁️ Walter Steenbok's eye for talent
Name: Walter Steenbok
Age: 50
Nationality: South African
Current job: Technical Director at Safa
Previously: Head of Scouting, Research and Analysis at Kaizer Chiefs (2018 to 2021) and Head of Scouting and Recruitment at Mamelodi Sundowns (2016 to 2018).
Education: Masters in Sports Directorship (Manchester Metropolitan University), MBA in Sports Management (Real Madrid Graduate School), PhD Candidate (Sports Studies) at the university of Johannesburg, to mention a few…
Image sourced from iDiskiTimes.
You cannot mention football scouting in South Africa and leave Walter Steenbok out of the conversation. With an impeccable eye for talent, he has worked his way through the football ranks over the years as a player, coach, instructor and scout.
Steenbok is widely credited for his role in shaping the talent pool at local football giants Kaizer Chiefs and Mamelodi Sundowns during some of their best years in the past decade.
Some of his greatest hits include notable players such as Knowledge Musona, Reneilwe Lethsolonyane, Gastón Sirino and Ali Meza, besides others.
A dedicated student of the game, Steenbok is also a published author with two books under his belt, namely Football Scouting Notebook 1.0 and The Football Scouting Bible.
Tasked with overseeing South Africa’s football development programme, he also has his sights set on mending the strained relations between Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos and the PSL’s coaches, to hopefully improve the standard of football being played in South Africa’s underperforming men’s national football team.
You can follow Walter Steenbok on Twitter!
📚 Resources
We have previously written about some of the issues with our local football talent pool, with in-depth analysis and input from experts. Here’s a selection you may be interested in:
📊 Want more?
If you enjoy information based on data take a look at our Outlier newsletter. Published every second Friday we dig into data about our world and make sense of it through visualisations.
📺 Women’s sports coverage
We’re all about women’s sports here at Outlier Sports, and it looks like we’re not the only ones. Earlier this month, SABC Sport kicked off its 2023 Year of Women Excellence campaign with this lineup of upcoming women’s sports events coverage:
- FIH World Indoor Hockey World Cup: 5 to 11 February
- ICC Women’s T20 World Cup: 10 to 26 February
- ITTF World Table Tennis Championships Finals: 22 to 28 May
- FIFA Women’s World Cup: 20 July to 20 August
- Netball World Cup: 28 July to 8 August
All of these events, except for the FIFA Women’s World Cup, will be hosted on our shores, which is hopefully a sign of greater things to come regarding investment in local women’s sports.
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Ciao!
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