As the day draws to a close, the sun slowly casts its final silvery rays. Its light dances on the waves of Walker Bay in South Africa. Whales blow fountains of water into the shimmering air. Michael Lutzeyer is standing at the edge of a football pitch and is too engrossed to notice the beauty that surrounds him. His team has just been defeated. “We’re back to the reality of the game, that’s for sure,” says Lutzeyer. “The big dreams are over.” And it’s quite true that South Africa’s football fever has died down. Nevertheless, some of the hopes attached to the 2010 World Cup have turned out well. Even though none of the African teams made it to the top, and the country wasn’t suddenly flooded with masses of money, something good still happened. “The good thing about the World Cup is that street football is no longer a leisure activity reserved for poor black children. It’s become a sport for which proper arenas have been created. Football has become socially acceptable, and that helps young black people enormously.”
Lutzeyer is a hotel proprietor and his home is in Gansbaai, a poor area on Walker Bay, far from the beaten tracks of the tourists. The township of Masakhaino sits on a hillside overlooking the ocean. Life is tough here, and nobody can expect things for free in a place where drugs, violence and AIDS are all part of everyday life. Then there’s the village of Bloomspark, settled by the descendants of Indian residents. Life’s a bit better for people living there, but not much. And finally, there’s Gansbaai itself. It is a former fishing village, where rich people from Cape Town have luxurious holiday homes, and the locals make a living by taking tourists out on whale watching trips or fishing for the declining stocks in the bay.
Michael Lutzeyer once ran a pub in the North German town of Lüneburg. Then he became general agent for an engineering company in the South African city of Cape Town. He had a wife and two children and never enough time for the family. During a trip to Walker Bay he discovered a farm with a derelict house surrounded by limestone land that was so hard to cultivate that nobody wanted it. “To cut a long story short” is one of Lutzeyer’s favourite phrases. In the end he gave up his job and moved out into the wilds with his family to make a new living from tourism in a place two hours by car from Cape Town. And that is where he now runs the Grootbos luxury lodge.
Lutzeyer listened to all the stories that his employees were telling, about unwanted pregnancies and violence. “I realized that if you want to prevent people getting into difficulties, it’s important to start at an early age.” He set up the Grootbos Foundation and supported the young people’s vocational training. Then came the day when South Africa was chosen to host the 2010 World Cup, and he immediately sensed the new opportunity. “All of my young lads dream of becoming a star. So I said to them, if that’s what you want, you’ll have to work hard for it. Education and training through sport – that was my idea.” Lutzeyer persuaded the local authorities in Gansbaai to give him a piece of unused land in the triangle between the areas where the coloured, black and white populations mainly live. The British Premier League donated the FIFA quality artificial turf, the German ambassador gave the shirts and sports students and professional players came in as volunteers to coach the youngsters. A model for success was born.
The coach of the Grootbos team is Lean Terblanche. Although she’s only 26 years old, she operates a strict regime. Discipline in all areas of life is the main priority. If you skip school, you have to leave. The same applies if you don’t turn up for the training sessions. Most of the boys now train four times a week, and they’ve stopped playing truant as well. The programme for the budding young sportsmen also includes educational afternoons with talks about HIV, contraception and hygiene, English and computer studies. The best players in the teams are presented to the big clubs after they have graduated from school. “We offer a lot more than just sport,” says Terblanche. “We open a door for the children that would otherwise remain closed. And we tear down racial and cultural barriers. When we first put the team together, there were a lot of mutual prejudices. Now, nobody even registers the colour of the others.”18-year-old Akhona Shailu is Lutzeyer’s oldest player. He only started school when he was 8. But now he is aiming to pass his high school exams in the coming year, and to become a professional footballer of course, preferably with Liverpool. Only two years ago he was still kicking a flimsy plastic ball around the sandy roads in his township. “I would never have dreamed that one day I’d be playing on a pitch like this and wearing a proper team shirt.” Terblanche wants to present the aspiring young player to Ajax Cape Town. Quite a few players from this club have gone on to become well-known names in European football.
Even though the World Cup is over, Lutzeyer is not at all worried about his team’s future. His hotel guests are inspired by the project and are eager to donate. “Gone are the days when tourists came here with nothing but their own relaxation in mind. Many of them also want to act in a socially and ecologically responsible way when they’re on vacation. They want to participate in everyday life. So they come along to watch the training sessions. And then they’re filled with enthusiasm and say: Michael, this is something we really want to support.”////
