Ubuntu Football Academy’s Dave Waters on the importance of a life after football

UK-born Dave Waters is a football coach working as the junior phase director at Cape Town-based Ubuntu Football Academy, founded in 2011 in response to the increasing number of children growing up without fathers or positive male role models. The academy aims to mentor every child in their care to be a leader, professionally developed to be a footballer, and uniquely educated to reach their academic potential.

He is also the author of Dual Dream, a book that identifies why the vast majority of South African academy players do not go on to have sustained professional careers, investigates many misconceptions about the opportunities that exist, and highlights dangerous pitfalls to avoid as a player.

The Outlier sat down with Waters to hear his thoughts on the football development landscape in South Africa. This is an edited version of our conversation.

What does Ubuntu Football Academy do?

Right from the inception, Ubuntu has really been in response to the lack of male role models in our communities… of men not standing up as fathers, husbands and leaders. The founders felt that this was a big issue and that’s why the focus has been on boys so that the next generation can have good men to look up to who have a purpose and drive. 

We have worked on just refining what we do, which is to holistically develop elite footballers to become citizens of significance. In the long-term, we would like to assess how these boys that we started with when they were eight years old are impacting society at age 30. The football aspect is obviously significant, but we want to send out young men into that field who are secure in who they are, and have got the tools academically, psychologically, and socially to go on and thrive in professional football or in another career.

What are some of the unique challenges that SA faces when it comes to developing footballers in comparison to other countries?

Firstly, we are dealing with a lot of boys who have come from really tough upbringings and usually some form of trauma. In their early development years, they are at a huge disadvantage – nutritionally, psychologically, academically – compared to their peers around the world, having seen and experienced things that a child shouldn’t go through. Trying to develop an elite sportsperson who has gone through that creates extra layers of work and requires extra levels of support.

Secondly, the physical makeup of South African players is also generally quite small, which puts them at a competitive disadvantage to some extent when trying to explore opportunities outside South Africa. Lastly, the foundation of our coaching is a challenge. More coaching courses would be great, whether it’s the official ones which should be rolled out by the South African Football Association, or the informal ones which you can source elsewhere. 

I encounter a lot of volunteer coaches who are coaching the youngest ages and there is very little framework for them to follow. That’s not necessarily the fault of these coaches – they are doing the best with what they can – but, it can be a disadvantage for developing footballers who need to be receiving the best coaching there is at that stage. A lot more skilled children will come through the ranks at a higher level, with the tools that they need with the right coaching.

Do you think that standardising requirements for all football academies, or football development in general would be a step in the right direction for football development in SA? 

In an ideal world, yes. You would want to make sure that there is a certain level of facilities, coaching qualifications, physio support, but that costs money. But in my experience, money isn’t always the answer. I have travelled to football academies in Qatar where a lot of money is invested but there hasn’t been much success with producing top footballers. 

In South Africa, we must realise that there will always be a disparity regarding that. The budget that we have at Ubuntu, will be different to what a Sundowns academy has, for example. There will also be setups that may not call themselves academies but are producing amazing players. But there are dangers that come with not having a standardised path – a couple of academies have incidents of child abuse because there are no basic protections and oversight put in place. It can be a dangerous space for vulnerable children to be in.

In my opinion, there should be some standards put in place because everyone can benefit from that. Looking outside of South Africa, there is a clear separation of performance standards. As a kid, I played and enjoyed a lot of sports and I knew by the age of 12 that I wasn’t going to be a professional footballer because all the top kids were absorbed by academies. 

That’s what shocked me over the years in South Africa – to see how many kids who are not very good at football think they have what it takes to be a professional. Or a 25-year-old who is playing in the ABC Motsepe League [South Africa’s third-tier amateur football league] and thinks they are going to be playing in the DStv Premiership in a year or two. So, standardization requirements in our football would provide a bit more clarity on the levels that one should be playing at in each stage and bring some players back to reality.

Anything further? 

We decided a few years ago that if we are going to be developing the formidable men that we want to see, there’s quite a lot of character formation that goes into that, whether on the spiritual side, psychometric side, or personality development. So we run quite a few programmes to ensure long-term success for these boys on and off the field.

We have increasingly been pushing the mentorship aspect where each of the boys have a designated mentor, which links to their personal development. This speaks to the Dual Dream element which comes on the back of the book which I published about a year ago, which is really about preparing boys for the day they start pursuing professional football. 

All boys in academies really want to become professional footballers but statistically, the percentage of boys in academies who make it professionally is small, and those who do make it professionally – especially in South Africa – tend to have short careers. The natural consequence of that is they definitely need two dreams in life: their football dream is a given, but we need them to understand that they may one day not make it professionally. They also need to try hard in their academics and see matric as the end-goal in their education, so they can have more opportunities to tap into.

If their whole identity is based on football, that may all come crashing down when they are forced to move on because they haven’t made it professionally or if their playing careers come to an end. It may be tougher to get an education at a later stage in life. We really try to get them to articulate what their dual dream is in life early on so that they are wired to think beyond football. That is a big focus for us.

Ubuntu Football Academy is a nonprofit organisation with a private school and residences which cater for kids from vulnerable homes, besides other programmes. The academy is open to support from individuals and organisations who have a shared belief in their values. If you would like to support the organisation, you can place a donation here.

You can also follow Dave on LinkedIn!