Costa Do Sol

During our remaining time here, I am going to try and show a small glimpse of the various places we visit and give coaching sessions. As I have mentioned before, the first team players are in charge of the junior teams and provide training sessions 2 or 3 times a week. We try and visit a different group each day and take a session for the kids.

One of the most unique groups is the one looked after by the club captain, Paiva and which is named Costa Do Sol, after the area. Whenever we arrive here and walk down the dirt track, past the houses where people are often outside cooking dinner or washing their clothes, we seem to gain a tail of up to 10 small kids, boys and girls. They are the same kids each week and some of them we have got to know very well.

First I have to mention Roy. The first time we visited Costa Do Sol, the kids raced for the footballs, and Roy didn't get one. The tears started to flow. At the time I didn't understand Portuguese well enough to understand why he was crying, but I was told it was because he didn't have a ball. We told him to go and play with the other kids, but he didn't want to. From then on, every time someone took a ball from him, he cried.

Since then, Roy has got a bit more brave, and if anything, a bit too brave. He has now turned into a bit of a ringleader and takes some calming down. One of my favourite things to do with Roy is ask him for the ball which he is hiding under his t-shirt...obviously the ball in question is just his belly, but it gets a laugh from him and all of the kids.

Another regular is Castellano, who has the meanest stare in Mozambique, yet is not as mean as he looks. His trademarks are his shorts that are always falling down, and dusting off our clothes when we get dirty from running around their dirt pitch.

Other favourites are Francisco, Milton and Nando, the latter two in particular who could easily be mistaken for brothers. Milton in particular loves to learn English and we often sit writing our names in the dirt with the kids. One week we were also treated to a special guest, 18 month old Tom Tom who we quickly nicknamed 'Sat-Nav'.

Nando, Milton, Francisco and Roy

Me, Castellano and Sat-Nav

There is also a large number of girls who come to these sessions and one of the most memorable sessions of our time here was the Girls vs Boys match. In goal for the girls was Adam and I was playing as a free role midfielder/ very biased referee! Whenever the boys scored a goal, they had to play in a crab position until the girls scored, which went down very well, more so for the girls.

After a 3-3 draw, the game had to be settled on penalties and the girls came through comfortable winners, no surprise given that Adam, the girl's goalkeeper was in goal for both team's penalties.


As our last days go by we are realising how hard it is going to be to say goodbye to Manica and especially the kids that we have seen regularly for the past 16 weeks. There is no doubt that the kids at Costa Do Sol are among those that we will miss the most...