Saturday, February 8, 2025

Nthoiwa casts eyes on Botswana for talent

One of Botswana’s few FIFA licensed football agents, Moran Nthoiwa, says he would love to see more Batswana players breaking into the European Leagues.

The agent, who is now based in Slovakia, says as part of his contribution to the country’s football growth, he will be casting his net wider in the country to identify top talent for teams in Slovakia as well as Europe.

Nthoiwa, who is the manager of Slovakia based under-18 star, Thatayaone Ramatlapeng, says his intention is to get more Batswana players in the Slovakian league as a stepping stone into the big European leagues.

Speaking in an interview, Nthoiwa said while the Slovakian league is not as well known as the Spanish La Liga, the English Premier League or the German Bundesliga, it is still a very highly competitive league with professionally run teams.

“If you have watched the current Euro 2016 Qualifiers, you would have observed that Slovakia has played against and beat the likes of Spain, Ukraine and Belarus. This goes to show how strong the league here is,” he explained.

He said looking at the current state of the league in Slovakia, a lot of local footballers can benefit and grow as professionals.
“The teams here are very professional. If you look at the FC Senec team, which Ramatlapeng plies his trade for in the youth league, it is a very professionally run team. They have 11 pitches, two of which have an artificial lawn. The youth leagues here are also well organized and are divided into divisions. As an example, Ramatlapeng plays here in the Premier League of the under 19 and below this are your usual lower divisions,” he explained.

Above all, Nthoiwa says the league is also blessed with a lot of highly FIFA qualified coaches, making it ideal for emerging players.
Commenting on Ramatlapeng, Nthoiwa said he would love to see the youngster thrive and grow without any pressure to realize his potential.

He said at the moment, his wish is to see the youngster establish himself in the senior FC Senec squad in a couple of years.
“As with any other young player I have, it is only when he has established himself that I can thrust him into other big league countries in Europe. Even then, the plan will be to take talent like him into lower divisions in big league countries to allow them to grow without any pressure before they can move to the higher divisions,” he explained. Nthoiwa described Ramatlapeng as a very talented player, saying he could turn out to be a very top professional if his development is done correctly.

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