Rhoo praises Discovery tournament
Lucas ‘Rhoo’ Radebe urges Safa to put its money directly into the mouth of soccer development in order to reap good yields later on in life.
Former Bafana Bafana, Kaizer Chiefs and Leeds United legend Lucas ‘Rhoo’ Radebe has hailed the just-ended marathon tournament of the Discovery Alex U12 Schools League as ‘a much-desired grassroots football development initiative’.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News at the end of the tournament of which he is the ambassador, Radebe said the talent displayed by both girls and boys on the field was amazing and needed to be nurtured to maturity.
“Grassroots and school football in particular are the pressure cooker of our development initiatives where talented should be discovered and carefully nurtured to maturity.
“If we want to be successful as football giants, it all starts here. This is the place where we should put all our money directly into the mouth of development in order to reap good yields later on in life.
“If we continue to overlook this pressure cooker, we will never make inroads with our development initiatives as they say in IsiZulu that ‘iskhumba sigotshwa sisemanzi’, which is an equivalent of the English adage that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks.
“If our talent misses this pressure cooker, there is nothing much that we can do in the later years,” Radebe said and urged the South African Football Association to urgently resuscitate the South African Schools Football Association.
“Safa should establish its academy and unleash its talent scouts to these grassroots tournaments to seek talented youngsters, both girls and boys, who are then absorbed in the academy.
“This will allow for further pressure cooking so that besides their school work, these youngsters will eat, sleep and dream all things football,” said the man who whenever he touched the ball on the field there were shouts of ‘Rhoo’.
