Santos coach David Notoane is a players’ coach, and a man determined to see young players developing to their full potential.

For a 44-year-old, Notoane has vast experience in the game. As a distinguished striker, he enjoyed a successful playing career with Santos, also representing home-town club SuperSport United.

As a coach, Notoane has been part of the technical team at Golden Arrows, the National Under-23 side, and was also previously assistant to Ian Palmer at Santos.

As a football player in Atteridgeville in the 1980’s, there were not too many opportunities for youngsters to make a successful career in the game.

But Notoane was fortunate to have grown up alongside the late former Bafana Bafana assistant coach, Thomas Madigage, who became his friend and mentor, helping Notoane earn a move to SuperSport, the two of them also bonded by their faith in the Zion Christian Church.

“We were just a 20-minute-walk apart from each other in the township. He was residing at ‘Ou Stad’ and I was staying at ‘Black Rock’ section. I literally followed in his footsteps in life,” Notoane said in a tribute to Madigage last year.

Now as Head Coach of the Peoples’ Team, the easy-going Notoane, like Madigage, is a man that people warm easily to, making him well-suited to guide and develop the large contingent of youngsters within the Santos squad.

He also spent many years in the Santos development ranks, nurturing some of the exciting young players that are today making the most of their chance in the senior side.

Development is obviously something Notoane is passionate about, and he wants to play his part to ensure that Cape Town’s vast wealth of raw talent does not go untapped.

“If we can look better after the talent that is available in Cape Town, develop it properly, then you won’t have headaches of these players going up north,” he pointed out.

“I always say to my chairman, before we take a player from outside of the Cape, have we exhausted our talent identification program in terms of the local talent, giving it an opportunity first?”

Notoane has been able to forge personal relationships with many of his players from a tender age. Now he hopes that those bonds will see himself, his players, and the club, achieving their goals and ambitions:

“I have had a fortunate situation, because of the players in the current squad, I have worked with a lot of these boys from under-23’s in 2010. I said to them, then: my objective is to be in the PSL. In four, five, years I will be there, I hope some of them will still be with me in the PSL, because that is my ultimate goal as an individual.”

The Peoples’ Team are currently in a strong position in the NFD, sitting in third position and in the play-off zone.

There is however still a long way to go, and with five teams from Cape Town in the division, the Santos tactician believes that derbies will be crucial if the Lansdowne-based club are to challenge for honours.

“You have 24 points at stake [in the eight derby matches,” he explains. “And you have the history, the bragging rights, and all that comes with a derby. As a coach, how do you approach it?

“Derbies are not always the best of games, but that’s what they bring, lots of passion, lots of fighting and kicking, on the sidelines, on the field. I think there could be a lot of draws in the derbies, and maybe the away games will actually determine who is champion.”
Source: http://www.psl.co.za