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Young soccer players showcase new talent at football trials

The organisers of the tournaments are appealing to the youth to participate in sporting activities in Wentworth.

SCORES of young and aspirant soccer players from various areas in the south of Durban battled it out at the two-day football trials at the Wentworth Ogle Road grounds recently.

The trials, which aim to explore local talent, began on October 5 for the U16s and continued on Sunday for the U18s, U19s and U21s.

Coach Lewis Donelly said that the Highbury grounds, under Ekaya All Stars Soccer, hosted the KZN inter-provincial tour and invited the Western Cape, Border (Eastern Cape), Free State, Limpopo, Gauteng and Hlenzeni LFA to join KZN selected schools to unveil a pilot project to revive soccer.

Also read: Basketball teams clash in intense showdown at recent tournament

“Ekaya All Stars Soccer, with partners Empire FC, based in Pretoria, are helping potential players get access to better schools, colleges and universities through collaboration events like this. Hopefully, Western Cape will host this event as one of the bidders as we have seen the potential where more than 4 000 players and supporters were in attendance. This event will help earmark potential scouts to source talent and present scholarships to those well-deserved stars,” said Donelly.

Snazo Mbotho showcases his ball-possession skills at the recent football trials held in Wentworth.

The U21s, with a team of 28 players, have been selected for phase one and will train for one week at South Beach to prepare for a camp in Pretoria in December.

“Some may be engaged beforehand as we want them to start their schooling career in Pretoria with the vision of placing some at various clubs and also abroad,” he said.

 

Draylin Nagel showcases his dribbling and passing skills at the recent football trials.

Those who excelled during the trials will have an opportunity to join the Empire Football Club in Pretoria.

The main goal of the Durban South Local Football Association is to provide players an opportunity to travel outside of the province or abroad to play in international tournaments offered by the Empire Football Club.

Anyone interested in joining can contact Lewin Donelly on 083 525 8880 or send their CV to ekayamarketing@gmail.com.

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Andile Sithole

He has been covering a variety of news beats for over 10 years. As a journalist working for community newspapers, he has covered politics, court reporting, municipal stories, crime, and news features over the years. Andile is also a multimedia journalist for Southlands Sun. He started his career in journalism as a freelance reporter in 2005 while studying Communication Science at UNISA. Prior to joining Caxton Newspapers, he worked for both community and commercial newspapers in Durban, where he won the Journalist of the Year Award in 2020 and 2021.

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