Amajita won the AFCON U20 title for the first time in their history, adding a new feat to a country that loves soccer and foreshadowing a big future for the country's many soccer talents.

In an exclusive interview for FootAfrica, the African football expert lorenz kohler answered several questions about the future of the South African U-20 team and what the near future holds for these promising youngsters.

1- do you think Tylon Smith will gain professional proposals from overseas clubs in the upcoming months, after his great performance in the tournament?

-Yeah, Tylon Smith will definitely... He'll get a lot of offers. If not, he'll get an opportunity to play at Stellenbosch, which is a very good club. As you know, they win the semi-finals of the CAF Confederations Cup.

He's just been very unlucky. In the sense that there's been four senior centre-backs ahead of him. But Stellenbosch is a club that sells every season, so Smith will either get an opportunity to play next season, or he will go overseas because we're one of the bigger clubs in South Africa.

Because he's got a very good agency that's working with him, so I have no doubt that he will go from strength to strength as the winning player of the tournament

2- in your opinion, How can Amajita gain a sustainable benefits from this first- time achievement.

The talent that caught my eye was definitely the captain of Sierra Leone, the number 10, I can't remember his name now, but a very technically gifted footballer, the number four, the captain of Morocco, I think he's a centre-back playing for Amiens, he was also another player, and then the striker from Egypt, I think he plays for Al Ahly, a young striker in Al Ahly, I think he's about 18 years old, he was really impressive, but from South Africa, you know, a lot of these players, I can't pick out one, they were all very impressive, but if I had to, you know, pick out a couple, I would say Shaquille April was very impressive, lots of pace, lots of trickery, he has huge potential, and then Lazola Maku, I feel if Lazola Maku from Amajita, from South Africa, was Chilean, or Argentine, or Brazilian, he'd be signed by Benfica tomorrow, incredible midfielder next to Romelu Moukakana, they were just, they were very impressive over the full course of the tournament, but yeah, there's so many, Sibaya, the left-back, Nkwale, centre-back next to Smith, Fletcher Lowe in goals for Amajita, they were all incredible, I can't pick out one of the names.

3- wich talent Caught your eye in this edition?

In my opinion, Majita obviously can have self-belief. I think, you know, it's riding on the positivity of Bafana Bafana having finished third at the senior AFCON. Yeah, I think it's gonna bring more belief, more sponsors to the national team, not just obviously the senior team, but age group levels as well.

More interest in the sport, more kids will have that belief as well coming up to say, you know, one day they can also win the AFCON. And I think, you know, we've always had the talent. It's just, you know, getting over the line to be able to, you know, win tournaments.

And I think with better profiling of our talents, perhaps we need to have, players that can physically compete with the West Africans and the North Africans. You know, this can continue. I think we had a very good blend and a very good technical team, a good blend of young talent with good physical profiles and good technical team to obviously overcome and win the AFCON against teams that have much more resources.

Like if you look at Morocco, if you look at Egypt, these teams are well-prepared, players well-experienced with over 10, 15 caps for the under-20 national team. So for our inexperienced team to come just, you know, win COSAFA and win the AFCON in the space of a year, it's incredible. So it's a lot of lessons learned for the federation, for the players and five of those players that won the AFCON now could play in the next under-20 AFCON as well, which is incredible.

4- wich names from Amajita will gain a big future with Bafana Bafana?

I think, obviously, if I had to pick somebody who can have a big future is definitely the goalkeeper. But there's a big difference between, you know, potential ability and current ability. So there's a long's a long road, like, for these players. It all depends on what they do now at club level. Do they go to bigger clubs, do they become regulars to their star at their current clubs? Because probably only Kulano Letlaku at Sundowns s plays else the captain, Asekotian, he also had San Non. He plays Fundo Villaazi at Kaii Chiefs. But there rest are still trying to find their feet in the professional space. So, yeah, there. There's obviously you at this point, you think they'll all become stars, but it doesn't usually work that way. It's all about getting first in football. And it's up to them. Try and get that.

Hazem Mlhem |

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Hazem Mlhem est un rédacteur sportif expérimenté, animé par une passion pour le football africain.