we don’t follow, we lead
ABOUT THE CLUB
Athletico Football Club was established in 2002/3 by the current “owner” and Club Chairman, Mr Eddie Pienaar. From the start, the club was always more about holistic youth development than it was about winning football matches. Eddie saw the need for an avenue into young men’s lives to equip them for a preferred future. Being a football lover and enthusiast, football was the natural choice.
Eddie and Tania, expended huge amounts of energy over the first years of the club’s life involving themselves in the school, academic and football lives of the young players. In 2007/8 Eddie engaged the assistance of a wider group of volunteers to begin a semi-formal Life Skills programme for the benefit of the players’ general emotional and spiritual growth, building into them a resilience for life’s challenges. This programme was called “First Mondays”, because first, we dealt with the person on a Monday afternoon, and then we trained physical and football skills for the rest of the week. It has now become a formal programme being offered to local schools and other clubs, alike.
The club has enjoyed much success over the years with the majority of the young players going on to be fruitful adult members of society, most with good jobs, studying further, and a significant number also joining the ranks of professional football in South Africa.
In 2019 the club was registered as a Section 21 (not for profit) company and as a Non Profit Organisation with the Department of Social Services. This has positioned AFC Rustenburg to have an even greater community impact.