RBL lend a hand at community sports facility in Tshwane | OneFootball

The roads get narrower the closer you get to the Mbolekwa Sports Complex near Pretoria. People sit in the shade outside small houses, children in school uniforms walk along the side of the road, and somewhere a ball rolls across the asphalt. It is loud, lively and warm – the unmistakable rhythm of an afternoon in Atteridgeville.

Then the road opens out, and a large sports site comes into view: halls, basketball hoops, a football pitch and an old stand behind it. Long before the players arrive, it is clear something special is happening here. More than 50 children are waiting on the steps, some with balls in their hands, others holding football boots or tour shirts they will later ask to have signed.

When Péter Gulácsi, Leo Zingerle and three RBL academy players walk through the entrance, the excitement turns into cheers. The children jump up, shout, laugh and rush forward. For a few minutes, it is all pens, shirts, boots, balls – and the kind of look in their eyes that shows why this visit is about more than another stop on the schedule.

When the excitement takes over

Péter Gulácsi does not have to look far to see what the afternoon means to the children. The RBL goalkeeper takes his time, signs autographs, poses for photos and jokes with them. Afterwards, he sums up the experience with a broad smile.

“It was really, really cool. You can see how happy the children are and how much they enjoy football. It’s simply been a lovely afternoon. We’re really pleased to have the opportunity to help here.”

The Mbolekwa Sports Complex belongs to the City of Tshwane, the metropolitan area around Pretoria. The facility is used by the local youth and football community. Just one kilometre or so away is the Lucas Moripe Stadium, where RB Leipzig played Mamelodi Sundowns as part of their South Africa tour.

That proximity says a lot about football here. On one side, the big stadium – the stage for an international friendly. On the other, a community pitch where children come together after school, play football, laugh and create their own moments with the beautiful game.

Supporting an important local facility

The Red Bulls were not only there to sign autographs. As part of the South Africa tour, RB Leipzig and their partners are supporting planned renovation work at the facility. The focus will be on the areas inside the stand, including the changing rooms and sanitary facilities. The stand itself is also set to be improved.

For Johann Plenge, two things come together at this site: young people and the infrastructure they need for football to be a real part of their lives.

“Children and young people are always our focus,” explained the RBL Managing Director. “Giving them the chance to play football is hugely important. Football doesn’t start in the Bundesliga or the Champions League. Football starts exactly in places like this, where children can enjoy the game and have fun.”

Places like this need the right foundations, he added: “You need a pitch, a stand and changing rooms. We’re pleased to be able to support this project and to help give the stand behind us a very different feel in future.”

Keepy-uppies, photos and high fives

While shirts are still being signed in front of the stand, the ball is already rolling down on the pitch. The first children run out, and the RBL players soon join in, whether for some keepy-uppies, a rondo, or sometimes simply for a photo or a high five in passing.

For Gulácsi, places like this are about much more than sport. They are meeting points. Spaces where children can grow – with the ball, but also with one another.

“It’s not just about football,” stressed the goalkeeper. “It’s about being together, having friends and enjoying life. A football pitch can give you all of that. I grew up that way myself. I was on the football pitch every afternoon and had lots of friends there. Those social connections and friendships are just as important as the sport itself.”

Through a father’s eyes

For Gulácsi, who has two children of his own, a project like this carries an extra meaning. Meeting with the children, the condition of the facility and the joy around the visit clearly left an impression.

“Of course, as a father you look at a project like this differently,” he explained. “You see how fortunate we were to grow up in a different environment and what opportunities our children have. That’s why it’s a really nice gesture to give the children here a better, more welcoming place. Ultimately, children should be able to have fun, enjoy themselves and grow up in that kind of environment.”

What lasts beyond the afternoon

For Plenge, the focus is also on what young people can take from a place like this. It is about football, of course, but not only football.

“They can build friendships here, come together as a team and learn the core values that make football what it is: fair play, teamwork, working hard and improving,” explained Plenge. “That takes a number of things, and we have been able to contribute one important part today.”

Gulácsi makes a similar point. Football can stand for a lot beyond the professional game: unity, togetherness and respect.

“Football carries a lot of values. It’s a team sport that brings many things together. When you have football pitches or sports facilities like this, you can learn those values too.”

A place with a future

As the visit slowly comes to an end, plenty of shirts are covered in signatures. Balls are clutched tightly and treated like keepsakes. The children keep running across the pitch, some glancing back towards the stand again and again.

That is where the work is planned. On the changing rooms. On the sanitary facilities. On a place that means more to many of the children here than simply a football pitch.

A place where they can come together.A place where friendships can grow.A place where football begins.

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