SAFA Technical Director outlines trip to Ghana

 Steenboks is attending the five-day event alongside South Africa U20 national team coach Raymond Mdaka, and will be joined by representatives from Senegal, Nigeria, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Zambia.

Steenbok explains the workshop will be led by FIFA officials looking at the Talent Development Scheme.

"I'm travelling with coach Raymond Mdaka, who we are earmarking as the next under-20 head coach, so there is what they call a FIFA-CAF knowledge exchange workshop," explained Steenbok.

"We are going to be there with the FIFA leadership, especially from the talent development scheme, so we've got a workshop for about five days to discuss and share what's happening in our youth football and development strategies."

Steenbok adds the gathering will help with developing strategies for youth football as there will be a lot of information exchange. 

But equally key will be to compare what other countries are doing to get their youth football on the right track and participating in major tournaments.

"We'll also be checking what are they doing in Senegal, why are they serial champions in men's football – they are winning almost everything [on the continent]," he added.

"Then there's Cote d'Ivoire, how are they using the legacy of the AFCON to develop their game, and of course Morocco, whose under-20 girls team is going to the World Cup – they've developed a lot of good structures.

"So it will be a lot of sharing, and we'll be taking our long-term development plan, technical strategies, and we'll discuss coach education, amateur football, grassroots football, and also leadership – what are their main requirements of being a leader, so we'll be doing a lot of benchmarking."

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