We need vision so that young talent does not fall through the cracks
ON Monday I was teleported to the future. No, seriously. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me after I had watched the Oscars, where my favourite childhood actor – Michael J Fox – presented an award. Fox starred in a series of the epic Back To The Future movies way back when.
Any efforts to snap out of my simulated reality were unsuccessful, and a youngster by the name of Luther Singh made sure of it. He wasn’t at the Academy Awards on Monday night receiving a standing ovation. No, young Singh was in Ndola, Zambia, dancing his way to stardom with his stunning hat-trick for the South African Under-20 team playing at the Youth Africa Cup of Nations and on a quest for a place at the Fifa World Cup in South Korea in May.
It’s easier to single out the Braga (Portugal) forward as an obvious choice to graduate to the senior men’s team – Bafana Bafana – because he was a standout performer on the night, but in truth the entire team was just incredible to watch. I was worried when they went a goal down, concerned that this dream would turn into a nightmare that would haunt me all week, or at least until Amajita face Senegal in their second Nations Cup match in their group to try and redeem themselves if they’d lost.
But the never-say-die attitude of coach Thabo Senong’s men saw them come back and thump the Indomitable Lions 3-1, with all three goals coming from a 19-year-old who recently joined Braga following a short spell with GAIS in Sweden. I’ll wait until after they have hopefully won the tournament and booked their spot at the World Cup before I harp on about them any more, but I really hope there is a plan in place to make sure Singh and his teammates don’t fall through the cracks.
Yes, it’s a real problem in this country that there seems to be no formula to monitor and nurture emerging talent. Shakes Mashaba, now the former national team coach, was lauded in the early stages of his tenure for promoting, among others, a 17-year-old Rivaldo Coetzee and eventually selecting him to play in a continental tournament a few months later. Mashaba lost the plot later on as the pressure of the job got the better of him; he recalled old hands such as Eleazar Rodgers and Bradley Grobler to help solve the scoring conundrum. His replacement is expected to be named this week, and I’m desperate to see what the new man’s strategy for synergy between all national teams will look like.
We could really use some consistency in this department. The SA Football Association has been going around in circles for far too long when it comes to finding the right formula to get a player from the junior to the senior team.
It goes without saying that we should be qualifying for major tournaments. But that shouldn’t be at the expense of continuing to look to the future. It’s just one game that Amajita so gallantly won, but for me, I am convinced that our prospects are in good hands
Give the kids a break.