27 July 2018– Burger-King sponsored South Africa’s national Under-20 (Amajita) midfielder, Duncan Adonis, opted to wake up late after his coach, Benni McCarthy, decided to give his Cape Town City FC players a day off on Friday, as they continue with their preparations for the new PSL season.
“I was feeling a little tired and that’s why I decided to stay in bed a bit,” Adonis said with a light chuckle over the telephone, sounding a little embarrassed.
However, on days where he has to wake up early and show up for training, the 19-year-old midfielder never drags his feet making his way out of bed. And that’s because training sessions with the Bafana Bafana legend and all-time leading top scorer, McCarthy, are the ones he looks out for the most on a daily basis.
“Coach Benni is a legend,” Adonis said. “However, he’s not that type of person who will come up to your face and brag about what he has achieved in the past. He never does that. Everybody at the club congratulated me after we qualified for next year’s Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations which will take place in Niger. He sent me a text and told me that I should just continue working really hard, being patient and that my time would come (in him being a consistent feature in the club’s first team). That meant a lot.”
It is in next year’s Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations which will take place from February 24 to March 12 that Adonis intends to do just that. The player shared how inspired he was when he learned that it is in this very tournament where his current club coach, used it as a launching pad to establish himself into being a decorated legend that he is today.
“That’s where I want to see myself, too,” Adonis said. “I want to go and play abroad. That, however, can be achieved through me taking baby steps starting with where I am now. My initial goal is to be a consistent feature in our reserve league squad playing in the MultiChoice Diski Challenge. Then from there I’ll start working my way into the first team. By the time we go to Niger for the continental showpiece, I believe that I would be super ready for the occasion.
“Our ambition as the Amajita squad is not just to go out there and qualify for next year’s Fifa Under-20 World Cup tournament (by finishing in the top four of the biennial continental showpiece). We would also like to go out there and try to win the Afcon tournament as well. That would be a great achievement.