CASTLE Lager has launched the third season of the “Together For Tomorrow’s Bafana” campaign, an initiative which aims to unearth talented footballers between the age of 18 and 21 who ply their skills in the SAB League. The SAB League is the country’s largest senior football development programme, with over 1 500 teams that play in all of the South African Football Association (SAFA) regions country-wide.
The main objective of the “Together For Tomorrow’s Bafana” campaign is to discover young talented players who have the potential to be signed by Premier Soccer League and the National First Division (NFD and PSL) teams and may one day represent South Africa in the Senior Men’s team, Bafana Bafana. A key focus area for 2014 will be the creation of a pool of quality players.This year also sees for the first time, the inclusion of University Sports teams, another critical leg in finding young football ‘rough diamonds.’ Varsity football is a two-month long tournament in which eight universities from across the country compete.
“With the inclusion of the Varsity football tournament in this season’s scouting process, we are deepening our reach with our football development efforts, and making a more meaningful contribution to the improvement of the standard of football in the country,” comments CASTLE Lager sponsorship manager Errol Madlala.
Launched in 2012 as a partnership between CASTLE Lager and SAFA, the campaign has proved to be a success, with a number of players from previous seasons being offered contracts by Premier Soccer League teams.
Such great stories include the signing of Siphiwe Mtsweni from Secunda by Kaizer Chiefs at the beginning of the 2013/14 PSL season. Chase Peterson and Deolin Mekoa are the latest players to be signed by Premier League sides SuperSport United and Maritzburg United for the 2014/15 season respectively.
“On the back of the success of the first two seasons, we are launching the third season and are confident that we will once again provide a platform for the top talent in South Africa’s lower leagues to showcase their skills to PSL and NFD scouts. We are both happy and proud to be part of leading this initiative which is contributing to the development of football in the country from grassroots level,” says Madlala.
Legends Neil Tovey and Phil Masinga will once again oversee the initial scouting and final selection process of the 23 players who will go on a month long training camp which will include playing matches with PSL and NFD teams.
It all comes together with a CASTLE…