Coach dreams big for himself and his boys
ALEXANDRA – LRC coach Bandile Thindleni believes that the sky is the limit for his coaching career.
Bandile Thindleni, the coach of new boys on the block, LRC Football Club (Love Reaching Community FC), has grand ambitions for the future of the club and his charges.
Every coach at grassroots level dreams about an opportunity to coach at the most prestigious level in the country, that being the Premier Soccer League.
Thembisa-born Thindleni is no different when it comes to his ambitions for his future coaching career, including the journey of his prodigies. “The pinnacle of my career will be getting an opportunity to coach at the highest level of football in South Africa, and that will be the prestigious Absa Premiership.
“Even if I am not head coach, any level that will allow me to mingle and mix with the giants of our football will be an honour for me and a great achievement in my career span,” said the soft-spoken coach who cut his teeth in coaching at the tender age of 16 while still in high school.
He soon found his way to the helm of a team in his hometown, Thembisa, and took Colchester FC U17 division to league honours. This was before embarking on a move to Alex in 2007 where he landed a coaching job with TDS FC in 2012, an amateur club owned by the secretary general of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association, Mafika Morajane.
In his first season in charge, Thindleni took the U17 division to the finals of the Spring Tournament and, two seasons later, he reached the finals of the Map Games. His U17 team also won the league.
Last season, he took his TDS FC U17s to the semis of the Alex leg of the Mandela Day Cup, while his other divisions got to the quarterfinals. He was then offered the coaching job at LRC.
“My vision and dreams are to see LRC and the boys move to the bigger leagues in the country such as the SAB League, ABC Motsepe League,
National First Division and ultimately the Premier Division of the Absa Premiership,” Thindleni concluded.
