Renowned youth coach and Stars of Africa Academy director, Farouk Khan, has offered advice on what can help to take the country to another level in producing talented young players.
Khan has been at the helm at Stars of Africa for more than two decades, and over the years he has seen several players make the step up to Bafana Bafana and abroad.
Orlando Pirates midfielder Patrick 'Tito' Maswanganyi has become the latest product of the renowned academy to get a Bafana call-up following the likes of May Mahlangu and Tokelo Rantie, among others.
Khan is the brains behind the newly revamped home of Stars of Africa Academy where many hopefuls have their talents nurtured in the hope that their dreams would come true too one day.
The Good
"This (youth development) is the important thing that as the South Africans we must appreciate, I think a lot of times we are talking about the fact that we want Bafana and Hugo Broos to ensure that we gain international recognition and success but I think the secret lies in our youth development programs. There are several youth players now that are coming through. There's a young man at SuperSport (Shandre Campbell) now who's showing a lot of potential. (Lwanda) Mbanjwa from Swallows is also showing potential. I don't think we're short of young talent, I just think we need to package the concept like we've done with Maswanganyi, and like we've done with many of the other players like Tokelo Rantie and May Mahlangu, just to mention a few. We need to ensure that we bring this talent through and ensure that this talent is guided properly through the different national team levels. If we do that, I think we'll have a very good chance of taking South Africa to the next level," said Khan, speaking exclusively to the Siya crew.
The Bad
"I don't think we have the right development structures in place. We do have development structures and we do have youth leagues, but I don't think it is structured as well as it is in other countries. It all starts with the fact that we currently don't have a national academy. We are dependent on clubs and not all the clubs have proper youth development structures in place. Also, I don't believe we have youth expertise in abundance. What people must understand is that youth coaching and general coaching are a little bit different in the sense that when you qualify as a general coach or a professional coach, youth coaching is a specialised field," he said.
The Ugly
"I think more coaches will have to spend time trying to become youth specialists. This is how things are done worldwide, if you go to Spain, England, Germany and on, they've got youth coaches and they've got professional and amateur coaches. In South Africa, we convert a lot of coaches into youth coaches. SAFA is conducting all the CAF coaching licences, which is all good, but we need to start developing specialists. I always use the comparison about doctors. If you go to a doctor for a child problem, you will be told to go to a child specialist. That's the doctor who will know exactly what to do with the child. So, yeah, there's a specialist for everything and I think in football we also need to specialise," the coach concluded.
Is it time for SAFA to start a national academy?
