Gems just waiting to be discovered
Sibongiseni Gumbi
KwaMahlobo Festive Season Games organisers have vowed to include women’s football in the coming years as they seek to make the tournament reflective of local football at all levels.
This was revealed to Phakaaathi Plus by Patrick Ntenjwa, one of the founders of what is now the biggest amateur tournament in the country.
“We are trying to grow the tournament at all levels. This year we will have a few exhibition games featuring women. But in the coming years we will have an Under-13 girls and a women’s tournament. That is what we are aiming for now,” said Ntenjwa during the launch yesterday.
Ntenjwa said the tournament has grown bigger than they could ever have imagined when they decided – while sitting under a tree in Meadowlands – that they should have a tournament where local youth could showcase their talent back in 1996. They now boast La Liga Africa as the main sponsor.
“We didn’t know we would get this big. We started with just four teams for the first tournament. But we have grown and now have 40 teams and an organisation as big as La Liga now sponsors us.
“We have consulted about the venue (the Meadowlands Stadium) but what we get from the community is that they don’t want the ground to be upgraded, because they feel the football is good because of the gravel surface,” he said.
La Liga Africa’s representative Antonio Barradas said they will be urging Spanish teams to send scouts to try and unearth raw talent, starting next year.
“There is a lot of talent I believe there are a few gems waiting to be unearthed,” he said.
The tournament has been a breeding ground of talent and a number of players have gone on to land deals at professional level – one of those is Orlando Pirates’ exciting young midfielder Xola Mlambo.
The winners pocket a whopping R120 000 and the runners-up take home R50 000, while the losing semifinalists get R15 000 each.