Moses Gondwe plays three games of soccer every weekend. 87552_01 Picture: KRISTIAN SCOTT
By ADEM SARICAOGLU
MOST of us struggled to simply get our homework done when we were growing up.
Try juggling that with training for two soccer teams and playing three matches on the weekend, all within a given school week.
That’s the life of 15-year-old Hoppers Crossing soccer hopeful, Moses Gondwe.
The New Zealand-born Grange student will normally come home from school, do some homework, head to training, get home by about 9pm and get back to his homework on the nights he has soccer training.
In what he would consider a normal week, Gondwe spends about 10 hours training for South Melbourne’s under-16s and 18s teams, plays futsal for the St Albans Strikers on Saturdays and two outdoor games on Sundays.
“It’s very hard but it’s challenging at the same time, so I enjoy the challenge,” Gondwe said.
“I think I’m handling it pretty well, seeing as I’m pretty young, and I’m dealing with all the school and training, so it’s pretty good.”
Since moving from New Zealand at the age of 10, Gondwe has represented a lot of different teams in both outdoor soccer and futsal.
Gondwe has played futsal in France and last week was selected to represent the Victorian under-17s futsal team, just to name a few of his achievements to date.
However most of his time is taken up by his outdoor commitments to South Melbourne, one of Australia’s most iconic soccer clubs.
“The quality’s very good, and the experience there is very high,” Gondwe said of South Melbourne.
“It’s really good because I actually came there to play under-15s, but the coach put me up to 16s, and then the under-18s coach saw how I played so I started playing under-18s.
“I’m loving it there.”
He describes himself as a modest, unselfish midfielder and winger, but when asked about how far he wants to go in the sport, Gondwe said he’s reaching for the top.
“I want to take it to a professional level, a very high level, so like A-League or maybe if I ever get a chance to go overseas again, try out for some clubs there,” he said.
If he can get that far, Gondwe revealed to Star he would commit himself to Australia over the country in which he was born, but for now he has his hopes set on making it into the National Training Centre.
“From NTC you can make the junior Australian squads. I haven’t done that yet but hopefully this year, I’m aiming to do that.”
