Gauteng Future Champions

Johannesburg, Wednesday 24th November 2010 – The winners of the Gauteng Future Champions soccer identification programme for 2010 are getting ready to jet off to Brazil from December 5-12 to spend the week training with two of the biggest clubs in the South American country.

Young rising stars Rorisang Tlhabane, Andile Nqabeni and Sboniso Mncwabe, as well as Coach the Coaches Programme winner Sphiwe Tsotetsi, will spend a week in the southern Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte, where they will train with the youth academies of top-flight clubs Cruzeiro and Atletico Mineiro.

The trio finished in the top three positions out of the 70 participants that contested the final stage of the Gauteng Future Champions talent search earlier this year. The final phase was the conclusion of a four-month campaign with the skills of over 6 000 players from Ekurhuleni, Johannesburg central, Motsweding, Sedibeng, West Rand and Tshwane regions all having been assessed.

The overall winner, Tlhabane, is a left-winger who is currently without a team, but has been representing his local side, Akasia FC, and also attends the Akasia Hoer Skool. The 16-year-old’s greatest weapon is his fantastic delivery from wide areas, and his sweet left foot is a striker’s delight as he provides accurate crosses into the middle.

  • We had a wonderful football and cultural experience in Gauteng. The tournament and activities were very well organized and we found everyone involved extremely helpful and accommodating. We have all returned home with fantastic memories of our time in South Africa, both on and off the pitch, and have made many new friends as a result of the trip. I hope that we are invited to participate in future tournaments.

    Everton Academy Head Coach

  • The experience both on and off the field for our players during the Future Champions tournament in Gauteng was life-enriching for all those who participated. We were privileged enough to win this edition but what will be bringing us back in future is the cross-cultural education our players receive from spending time with athletes from all over the world. They are human beings before they are football players and enriching them with other cultures is as rewarding as the experience they receive on the field.

    Club Tijuana Director of Football

  • After twenty years of experiencing tournaments around the globe, Future Champions is hands down the best organized, well run International Tournament we have ever participated in. Bringing teams from dozens of different countries provided our boys exposure to cultural diversity they only read about in textbooks. It’s amazing how sport can be the cultural link that provides the opportunity to interact with each other and discover that our global community is a bit smaller than they realized. We had a football and cultural experience that will be cherished for the rest of our lives.

    Director of USYSA Select

  • For us to compete in Future Champions is much more than playing a series of matches. It is an opportunity to compete and contrast our level against the best teams from around the world and the possibility of living in another culture and environment for an unforgettable week, learning about the history of the fight for human rights.

    Director of Aspire Academy

  • The addition of a girls’ competition this year is a natural expansion for what has become a hugely popular event. Over and above the football, the players are also exposed to life-skills courses and HIV/AIDS awareness that could end up saving their lives in the future. We have had an amazing partnership with the Gauteng Province over the last decade and we thank each and every stakeholder for making the Future Champions Gauteng campaign such a huge success

    Tournament director