18 February 2019 – Last years’s talent identification programme, sponsored by Sport and Recreation SA, produced many hidden gems and a number of players identified were included in the Banyana Banyana and u17 Girl’s National World Cup squads. Both these teams qualified for their respective World Cups.
Due to this huge success, this year both FIFA and the SRSA have again come on board to repeat the exercise of talent identification for women footballers.
Assistant Technical Director Fran Hilton-Smith said “repeating this exercise will again enable us to get the top talent again for our u17 and u20 women’s teams who start qualification for their respective World Cups this year. Our National scouts will again be covering the Nation identifying talent. With FIFA and SRSA on board we can again supply each girl who attends the selections with a soccer ball. Coaches receive shirts, coaching boards, whistles and stopwatches to enable them to perform their coaching jobs better. A workshop is also held for the coaches who attend. Having FIFA onboard shows that our programmes are achieving the desired goals. Never before have two women national teams qualified for world cups and for Banyana Banyana it is a first”
“Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis and u17 coach Simphiwe Dludlu will be part of the selection panel as well as many of our qualified selectors who all have a CAF A licence. This year we will also use some of the former players like Gloria Hlalele and Portia Modise to assist us” concluded Hilton-Smith.