'It would be an unbelievable moment for me' - Mark Fish hoping agreement helps bring more South African players to Charlton Athletic

Addicks sign partnership with former defender's foundation and it could help identify outstanding young talent in the country

Charlton Athletic have signed a partnership agreement with the Mark Fish Foundation - and the club’s former defender is hoping it could one day lead to another South African player starring in SE7.

Fish, capped 62 times by Bafana Bafana, played 111 matches for the Addicks in the Premier League between 2000 and 2005.

The Mark Fish Foundation was established in 2017.

It is Charlton’s first formal collaboration under their newly-launched International Football Programme.

Picture: Charlton Athletic FC

The partnership was confirmed at a signing event at The Barrel Room in South Africa and the agreement was signed on behalf of the Addicks by their former manager Alan Curbishley.

Curbishley was the Addicks boss when Fish joined from Bolton Wanderers in a £700,000 transfer.

“I’m excited and very fortunate to have this opportunity because as much as the link-up gives exposure to the players, having had the Charlton coaches out here, we are also spreading the Addicks to Africa,” Fish told South London Sport: Charlton Athletic Edition. “They are getting to know what Charlton Athletic is all about.

“The older generation knows that myself and Shaun Bartlett were there. This is spreading the word and the possibility of being able to play for Charlton one day. This pathway will hopefully help open that up. That is what it is about. It is any kid’s dream in the world to play in the Premier League or the Championship - to play football in the UK.

“We have had a few South Africans represent Charlton over the years. It would be an unbelievable moment for me to experience another South African playing for Charlton. It will make us very proud as a football nation.”

Charlton will support the delivery of structured football programmes for young people in selected communities across South Africa and put in a press release that the link-up will ‘enhance opportunities for young players while supporting wider personal and social development’.

Steve Brown, a former team-mate of Fish at Charlton and now head of youth partnerships for the Championship club, has explained that the top talent could be flown over to be assessed.

“Immediately that probably won’t happen because everything has to be legally agreed to make sure it is all above board - you can’t just take a player out of South Africa and plop them into Charlton Athletic,” Brown told this website. “That side we are very much still looking into.

“You can invite people over to train and monitor. We are here to look at potential. Mark came over in November with a group of players that were excellent. That was another leap of faith between me and Mark - it was into the unknown. We got him over to the training ground and there were four or five really good footballers in that group. It led to us coming here to look at the set-up and foundation.

“There are ways you can get players across but we have to make sure everything is in place before we do that.

“When you are Charlton Athletic and you look at the scouting networks of modern day football, everyone has got the video analysis, Wyscout and so on to watch most players around the world. You have got to try and think outside the box as a Championship club where finances are restricted, to a degree. This gets us into the foundation with Fishy - he’s got some excellent players here already.

“There are other aspects - the Community Trust side of it. We are going into local schools and doing coach education, we’ve done that on this trip. We have tried to spread what we know as coaches into the community here. We delivered a programme today (Tuesday) to 20 coaches who all listened in intently.

“I watched four sessions today and there have been four or five kids that have been brilliant to see. They are young and it’s my first watch - you don’t know where it is going to go. But by the time I leave here an email goes around saying ‘brilliant Fishy - we’ll have the names’.

“If Fishy says he will be amazed that a kid can’t get into our U16s, U18s or U21s, whatever age group it may be, then we’d be mad not to fly that kid over and give him at least an opportunity to prove himself. Mark has got a very good footballing brain and an intelligent eye, which may be an advantage to us.

“Every time we speak there is something else we can bolt on. It’s getting bigger and bigger.

“We wouldn’t be here if there wasn’t a plan to expand this. We have the support of Gavin Carter, the chairman, and we’re going to do our level best to ensure this is a success. There is a talent ID aspect to this, there is a community element to it and there should be a commercial element to this.

“Mark will play an important role in this. He is running the foundation. He has got to drag something out of this, because it is not just one way. As a football club it makes perfect sense that we are getting our eyes on the ground in South Africa in little pockets that maybe nobody else has discovered yet. You can’t cover the whole of South Africa scouting, you just can’t.

“If I can use a connection to an ex-player to get a little leg up ahead of someone else then I will do that. I’m going to link up with someone in Denmark, we’ve got one in Sweden and one in America.

“If you think about Phil Chapple and recruitment, whoever he goes to watch then there will be other clubs competing. It is a really difficult process - recruitment. Everyone thinks it is easy and it really isn’t.

“This is an avenue where we can try to get into a system to keep an eye on youngish players - 14, 15, 16 and 17. Mark will keep us updated and if they are really exceptional then we will fly them across - give them a platform.

“Mark wants to open doors. Most are underprivileged. Mark’s foundation gives them a chance to train with good coaches.”

Fish was part of the South Africa side which won the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations. The nation were runners-up in the same competition in 1998.

“To me he is Fishy, my team-mate, and we slap each other on the back,” said Brown. “Then you come over here and you understand the gravity and weight of what his name carries.

“There isn’t anywhere we go where he isn’t taking a photo or getting a pat on the back. It has surprised me. It’s amazing to see how popular he is over here.

Mark Fish playing for Charlton Athletic/Picture: Keith Gillard

“My first memories of him when he signed was ‘great - I’m on the bench again’. It was the same with Eddie Youds and Carl Tiler. You think ‘oh, crikey - it’s another one coming in’. They are coming in from a better club and have a better reputation.

“But there was always that part of me that thought I would fight and get back in. Fishy was exactly what we needed at the time. A little bit of pace. Athletic. He wasn’t aggressive to the point of making challenges, but he was aggressive to the point of making up ground to get tight. He was a different type of defender which Curbs probably needed and he did fit the bill.

“It was coming towards the end of my time at Charlton. I’d done the whole of the 90s and we got to 2002, Curbs was revamping the squad.

“I played with Fishy when we beat Arsenal 4-2. It was a great result but for half an hour we were on toast! We were laughing at each other and going ‘where’s (Thierry) Henry? We can’t find him anywhere’. I had a few great results playing with him at centre-half.”

Curbishley also welcomed the newly-formed partnership.

“It’s the way that football is going - you need connections all over the world,” the legendary Charlton boss told this website. “We’ve got connections with Fishy and Shaun Bartlett. There is a bit of a rapport there. That is why we are out here - we think there is an opportunity for us to snare some talent.

“Mark has a profile in South Africa but also he has that profile at Charlton. Even when you go there now you have the fish going across the big screen and the crowd reacts. The Charlton fans appreciate what he did when he played for us.

“I don’t think the club had any hesitation having a link-up and hopefully it produces a few players.”

Curbishley initially tried to sign Fish in June 2000 but the transfer did not go through until November that same year.

At the time Fish captained a Bolton side managed by Sam Allardyce.

“I don’t think the manager at the time was happy about letting him go but we persisted,” said Curbishley.

“I liked his athleticism and the fact he could play in a couple of positions. He could play as a centre-half with someone else or he could play as a three. He could play as a wing-back and even as a full-back. So he was very versatile. And he had great pace as well, which is something that I wanted.

“He did fantastically well for us.”

Shaun Bartlett/Picture: Keith Gillard

Charlton’s other high-profile import from South Africa was Bartlett.

The Cape Town-born striker, initially signed on loan from FC Zurich in 2000, scored 26 goals in 139 matches.

His volley against Leicester City won Premier League Goal of the Season in the same campaign.

“Shaun probably holds the best goal of the season,” said Curbishley. “The volley he scored from Graham Stuart’s pass.

“It is up there because we had been practising it for some time, that if anyone picked the ball up in midfield then Bartlett would spin as the ball came over. I didn’t expect him to hit it first time. It paid off. It was an amazing goal.

“Shaun and Fishy were just great lads. They trained properly and conducted themselves properly. They understood the culture at the club at the time. They were major, major influences, not just on the team but also the players and the fans. Everyone appreciated what they were doing.”

Curbishley says he never expected Fish to go into management after his retirement in 2005.

But that doesn’t mean that the former Lazio player did not help set standards during his time at Charlton.

“We had a couple of younger players coming through that he had a big influence on,” said Curbishley. “I don’t think he had to say too much, it was through his actions. People like Scott Parker and Paul Konchesky saw that as the way you had to conduct yourself.

“We’ve been here for a couple of days and he has a smile on his face. It’s great to see him. I think he is putting something back into the game, apart from anything else.”

If Charlton Athletic find the next Mark Fish or Shaun Bartlett, there will be plenty of smiles at The Valley as well.

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