25 Jan 2022

Mmoni ‘States’ Segopolo would have crowds enthralled with his pace and attacking ability during his heyday as a top player for Township Rollers and the senior national football squad,.

Nigh on a decade and a half after hanging up his boots after an illustrious playing career, Segopolo has now seen it fit to invest in football development.

The Dimo brand, a new, wholly locally owned sportswear company has invested in sponsoring the Premier Stars development team run by Segopolo and other partners.

The football outfit now has a competitive side that competes in the Gaborone Regional Football Association Division 3 and maintains under 17, 15 and 13 development teams, Segopolo revealed in an interview.

“We are grateful to Dimo. They recently furnished senior playing squad plus the development team with a playing kit and all other technical equipment we need for practice and travelling,” Segopolo said

Segopolo stated, ‘In 2009 I founded Premier Stars with my former team mate at Rollers, Mokwadi ‘KK’ Mokgwathi.

Over the years we have produced players who have made it to the Premier League; the latest product being the exciting midfielder Shaun Theron, who now plays for Notwane aged just 18. In 2019 we hosted an under 15 tournament at Kgale JSS in order to further nurture talent and test our players against others.

We have now registered our senior side in Division 3, but we are mindful to utilise players who have gone through our development structures, which we have maintained from under 13 level,” Segopolo added.

One of the mothers of their players, Sablie Gaotlhobogwe, recently also invested in sponsoring equipment, some of which is in excess and by mutual agreement will be sold in order to generate funds for reinvestment in the team.

“Our intention, in partnership with Dimo is for our senior team and development sides to be fully equipped with golf t-shirts, tracksuits, gym wear and other apparel that they design.

We also want the side to be fully resourced to meet its demands,” he said.

Segopolo and Mokgwathi sit in the board of directors of the Fortune Alligned (Pty) Ltd company that operates and trades as Premier Stars; working with chairperson Boniface Kesolofetse, Gomolemo Molosiwa, Ronald Molosiwa and Otsile Morake.

He said their dream was to produce more talent that would not only participate in the domestic league, but go on to perform in international leagues.

They also supported their players to go to school abroad, with their product Boikaego ‘Stooge’ Mbaakanyi currently playing college soccer in the United States of America (USA) and Dennis Keiphas in China.

Dimo director, Thabang Morake, said the company, owned by Batswana youth, was interested in pursuing the project in order to give back to Segopolo and Premier Stars, who have been actively engaged in their community.

“My elder brother Otsile Morake is the founder and co-director of the company and is one of the first players when Bra States (Segopolo) founded Premier Stars as a development team back in 2009.

Otsile later went to pursue his studies in China and having developed the know-how, we formed Dimo,” he said.

Thabang stated that the name of the company, Dimo, was an acronym for their late grandmother, Dikeledi Morake.

“The team is based in the Block 9, Gaborone neighbourhood where we grew up, there are many players in their senior team that we grew up with as childhood friends and thus is only natural that we saw it fit to support the side,” Thabang said.

He stated that he and his brother did not acquire funding from government or private banks to start their business; rather reinvesting from the profits of a small family company to start Dimo.

Through Dimo sports tournament, they ensured that different development sides tested their strengths against each other.

He appealed to government and corporate world for assistance in expanding their brand, in order to ensure more employment and better visibility of their products in the foreign-brand dominated retail outlets of the country.

Countries with small sized populations - Mauritania (4.7 million), the Gambia (2.4 million), Equatorial Guinea (1.4 million) and Comoros (880 000) as well as the more populous Sierra Leone (8.2 million), all countries considered continental minnows, have made a good showing at the ongoing African Nations Cup (AFCON).

This shows what could be achieved if Botswana were to take football development and the corporate world comes on board in ensuring that the national sport takes off, and the Premier Stars-Dimo partnership was but one such example. ENDS