Newly appointed Chippa United head coach Daine Klate has vowed to promote local talent whilst in charge of the Chilli Boys.
Klate is the most decorated footballer in the Premier Soccer League (PSL) era winning six league titles and a number of cup competitions in spells at Orlando Pirates, SuperSport United, Bidvest Wits and Chippa.
Having acquired his coaching badges, Klate has now returned home to replace interim head coach Kurt Lentjies as permanent head coach. The 37-year-old is a proudly local product himself, having grown up in the Gelvandale suburb of Gqeberha (formerly known as Port Elizabeth) where Chippa are based.
And the new Chilli Boys boss is intent on developing talent in the Eastern Cape province and hopes to make a difference in the lives of homegrown stars.
“That is one of the tasks for me coming in as a local boy, having worked with the Chippa DDC [DStv Diski Challenge reserve] side — there are only local players in that team. So we have a wide net of players to choose from,” Klate said.
“The club wants to have more local players in the team, and also wants to make a difference in more local players’ lives.
“For the most part, boys have to go away if they want a career in football. This is the only team in the Eastern Cape and we want to make more opportunities for them to stake a claim.”
Klate is determined to create a hungry group of players hell-bent on success saying that in recent times there has not been enough of a winning mentality in the squad.
“I want the players to hate losing. And perhaps previously losing was accepted a bit too much. So we will try to change that and then see how best we can ring back positive results,” said the former Bafana Bafana international, who played 13 times for his country, scoring one goal.