Fortune: Get The Balance Right

Former United ace Quinton Fortune believes playing on game consoles could actually help youngsters develop their football skills.

The South African was blown away by the talent on show at the Manchester United Soccer Skills Final at Carrington recently and feels the fact that there is such easy access to watching the world's best players has to be a positive development. Many observers have criticised schoolchildren for playing computer games rather than getting fit but Fortune insists that a balance can be reached because the simulations are now so realistic.

"It's just amazing," he said of the extraordinarily high level of technique amongst the youngsters at the Trafford Training Centre. "I don't know what it's down to. Perhaps it's access to TV. They can see Ronaldinho, Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Nani showing their skills on TV every week. It's got to be down to TV and the PlayStation and all that stuff."

When pressed on the role of the game consoles, he replied: "It works good and bad. You want kids to be outside and I can only speak from my experience.

"When I was in Cape Town, I didn't have the PlayStation. I was out in the field the whole day and only went inside to eat and sleep. You want kids to have a balance. It's down to the schools and parents to educate them. There's got to be outside activities, even if it's not football, so they can be with their friends and enjoy sport."

Fortune admits he was lucky to get the opportunity to leave his homeland and pursue a career at the top level so he's keen to offer African youngsters a similar chance.

"I'm working for United but I'm hoping to do some stuff back home in South Africa with kids as well," he added in an exclusive interview with ManUtd.com. "It's more to keep them off the street.

"I ran Fortune FC which was going well but had a few problems and didn't work out. Hopefully, I can start again and do even more to get kids into school and just give them a chance. I was given a chance at 14 and what a blessing that was.

"Football is just the best sport in the world, in my opinion. You can find it being played anywhere you go in Africa, across the continent. Football is the only thing that keeps people happy these days.

"I was very fortunate with my upbringing. I had four brothers and one sister and the brothers all played football. There were gang fights almost every day but I was so crazy about football, it kept me away.

"I'm grateful to my parents, they were good parents, and brothers who took care of me because football was my way out. Many kids seem to take the wrong road where they end up in that type of life but football was everything to me and I just hope a lot of kids make the same decision."