With just a few days before CAF officially kicks off the inaugural CAF African Schools Football Championship in Durban, South Africa, Gambia’s representatives, Scan Aid, departed on Monday to the game. The delegation is led by GFF’s Technical Department Sang J Ndong.
Head coach of hosts, Clapham High School, Simon Blangwe, has lauded CAF for introducing such an innovative competition to bolster the growth of African youth football.
Blangwe, who holds a CAF coaching qualification, says schools football forms a crucial foundation for football development in any country and therefore CAF’s efforts and innovation must be lauded in introducing such a unique competition.
“I think if you check in the past, school’s football has been used to produce top footballers who now play professionally. I think this programme is going to help most of the schools that are disadvantaged to be able to showcase their talented players.
Such a tournament helps a lot of kids to start their football careers thanks to CAF, so I really must applaud them for the initiative,” said Blangwe.
The coach’s views on schools’ football are most certainly substantiated by the talent that his school has produced in recent years.
Former Mamelodi Sundowns and now Al Ahly talisman, Percy Tau, honed his footballing skills at the school that is based in the nation’s capital.
Another emerging prospect from the school is South African national Under-17 player, Siyabonga Mabena, who won the Golden Boot and Player of the Tournament award in this year’s TotalEnergies CAF Under-17 AFCON Qualifiers in Malawi.
Asked on his preparations for the tournament, the coach said his players are happy with the conditions in Durban and are looking forward to a wonderful tournament of African school’s football.
“We arrived on Saturday and managed to do our first training session with the boys and I must say, we are happy with the weather. We had our second session today and the boys are looking sharp and ready for this exciting African school’s football tournament,” concluded Blangwe.
The Draw of the 2023 CAF African Schools Football Championship will take place today Tuesday.