Academy players reach first division in two years

Former Black Leopards and Cape Town Santos defender Peter Mponda has taken a group of teenagers and schoolboys at the Surestream Academy to the top tier of Malawi's football in just two years.

The retired captain of the Flames, Malawi's senior national team, has helped the Surestream Football Academy win Malawi's first and premier division - the equivalent of the Castle Regional League and the National First Division in South Africa - respectively.

"Most people didn't believe in these youngsters," said Mponda of his team, which has an average age of 19. Mponda started working at Surestream, which is based in Chilomoni township outside Blantyre, in 2013 after a knee injury cut short his playing career at Santos.

The academy was started and is still sponsored by Surestream Petroleum, a United Kingdom company with interests in Malawi, and now has 150 players in its books from under-10s to under-18s and the senior team. Only four of the academy players have completed school.

It also reaches out to another 7500 players through its mobile academy in Malawi's northern and central regions, which they visit two or three times a week.

"Once we produce more players, lots of companies and individuals will come."

He is already thinking of expanding the academy to neighbouring Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo but will not venture into South Africa because "the country already has lots of academies".

Mponda was still playing in SA during the last xenophobic attacks in 2008 but insisted he never experienced any hatred because of his nationality.

"Even in 2008, it (xenophobia) did not affect those who were playing football," he said.

The academy has already produced two full internationals - goalkeeper Bright Munthali and midfielder Ernest Tambe, 17, - who was recently invited for trials at Bloemfontein Celtic.