Patrice Motsepe foresees CAF Schools improving African talent conveyer belt

Motsepe was speaking to the media just after the conclusion of the first schools’ finals at the Sugar Ray Xulu stadium in Clermont near Durban yesterday. 

About 41 out of 54 CAF member associations had entered schools for this tournament that started nationally and went regionally, culminating at a continental level. 

Motsepe, whose Foundation sponsored this tournament to the tune of $10 million (R180 million), believes in the future of this tournament.

"This is one of the best investments we can make in football, both youth football and specifically schools’ football. We grew up watching the very best football players who were first identified and nurtured at school's level. So, I'm very thankful but I'm also very confident that as South Africa, as the African continent the benefits of investment in school football we will realise it in the medium to long term," Motsepe said.

It was estimated that about 500 000 school children took part in the first year of this tournament, with 20 000 schools involved across the continent. Motsepe expects these numbers to increase drastically next year.

"About 50 000 schools participated in the Inaugural African Schools Championship, and about 500 000 boys and girls are part of this initiative. Next year we expect as many as 150 000 schools that will participate. It's a good investment at the schools level and the statistics speak for themselves. Excellence in sports and excellence in schools football goes hand in hand with excellence academically and excellence as far as education is concerned," Motsepe added.

Ben Sekou Sylla from Guinea became the inaugural winners of the CAF Schools Championships beating Clapham, of South Africa 5-4 in penalties after the two teams had played to a one-all draw during regulation time.

They have taken home first prize money of $300 000 (R5.4 million). 

Clapham, a school that’s mainly made up of Mamelodi Sundowns academy players and coached by the Brazilians development coaches as well took home $200 000 (R3,6 million) for finishing second. 

Head coach Simon Blangwe reflects on their journey in the tournament.

"I think the team performed very well, they stuck to the game plan. I told the boys that physically you can't compete with them, the only thing we had to do was put the ball down and move it quicker, that's where we could hurt them. When you compete with players from other African countries, you can see that they're very strong physically. I give credit to my boys for being able to compete at this high level," Blangwe said.

Tanzanian women’s football has been on the rise in the past few years and it didn’t come as a surprise to see Fountain Gate Dodomo High School hammering their Moroccan counterparts Ecole Omar Ibn Khatab Rabat 3-0 in the final, also taking home $300 000 (R5.4 million).