Safa Cape Town Football Academy will in the coming months reach another milestone.
This comes after the region’s only football team thus far, has been granted entry into the prestigious Engen KO Challenge which will kick off from the first weekend in June.
The Safa Cape Town Academy, along with Eyethu FC, Black Birds, Valencia, Rebels and Salt River Celtic are the newbies in the tournaments for under-18 boys.
The region has been lauded since the introduction of the under-19 squad – that has been competing in the Bayhill Premier Cup for the previous three years – for its forward-thinking in this regard.
According to Safa CT’s Technical Director Boebie Solomons who runs football matters, this is another method to strive for continuity with the squad.
Solomons explains: “What we have discovered is that these tournaments mean a lot to players,” Solomons said to No Bones with Jones. “Unfortunately, those players that are at teams who do not make it into these big tournaments, generally miss out on this opportunity, you know.
That is where we come in with the academy, as it provides (really talented) players with another opportunity to also play in the tournament. This is also good for the development aspect as the talented ones do not fall through the cracks. It allows them to play against equal quality or even better players and in an environment where they can excel.
“This should really be beneficial towards the talented players in my view as we provide them with good coaching as well. We basically provide them with a platform where they can learn, develop, grow and flourish. Setting them up to not only become great players, but decent and exemplary human beings,” Solomons added.
As part of the ongoing process of the academy, they will persist with the coaching staff of Goodwin Lewis and his assistant, Tembani Mini, and the technical team that was on duty at the Easter spectacle.
Lewis and Mini, along with six other scouts, have been spotted during the final round of the playoffs at the two venues, Chukker Road and Rygate’s Johnston Road Sports Complex.
Solomons pointed out this to identify more talent and to ensure that the quality players do not fall through the cracks.
“They make the recommendation and we will sit and discuss it and thereafter we will have trials and then only compare apples with apples, you know. So it is a process that we are going through. You see a lot of people don’t realise that tournaments are part of development.
“In other countries players get exposed to international competition at the ages of 12 or 13 years already and when they come to senior football then they have already played in 20 or 30 tournaments already, you know,” Solomons concluded.
The tournament kicks off on 8 June and finishes the next day at a venue that will be announced on 26 April.
List of participating teams for the tournament proper.
- Eyethu FC
- Black Birds
- Everton
- Cape Town City
- Rygersdal FC
- FN Rangers
- Cape Town Spurs
- Hellenic
- Vasco Da Gama
- Valhalla United
- Valencia
- Rebels FC
- Salt River Celtic
- Ubuntu Academy
- Stllenbosch FC
- SAFA Cape Town Academy
