Vision
The Soccer Institute's vision is to develop a centre of excellence for soccer and use the power of soccer to make a step change in education and socio-economic development.
While the institute's main role is to develop soccer players, coaches and administrators, it has a much wider goal. It aims to produce well-rounded individuals who have completed a three-year university curriculum, assimilated important life skills, and received mentoring along the way.
Missions
Producing leaders, not just soccer players
The aim is not only to develop soccer players using the latest training methods, technology and science, but also to produce well-rounded individuals who can assume leadership roles in South African sport. Soccer careers can be short, so it is important that our students have specific skills in other areas on which they can fall back.
Matching soccer with academic ability
Students who are accepted at the institute need to have considerable soccer ability and a National Senior Certificate (NSC) pass to ensure that they will be able to thrive in the dual environment of soccer development and academic study.
Building capacity at grassroots level
As students at the institute are largely selected from poorer communities, it is appropriate that giving back to the needy communities forms a crucial part of the institute’s ethos. Giving back takes the form of coaching clinics, helping schools to form their own leagues, providing teachers with coaching and refereeing instruction, and using the game of soccer to provide a motivational training course for inmates at correctional facilities.
Soccer Institute’s holistic development model develops the game and players from grassroots to elite level using the following as our guidelines:
- Elite player development
- Talent nurturing
- School soccer development
- Grassroots development
The insitute is supported by pillars to create leaders for the game and the business of soccer by developing the individual player in four areas:
- Development as a professional soccer player
- Academic career development
- Life skills development
- Mentorship and leadership development