South African U17 men’s national team coach Vela Khumalo has announced his final squad for next month’s 2024 COSAFA Youth Championships.
The regional tournament will be played in Johannesburg from 4 -13 December 2024 and will determine which two countries will represent Southern Africa in the 2025 CAF U17 Africa Cup of Nations. Amajimbos have been in camp since Tuesday, 26 November 2024, when the 26 players were brought into camp for final assessments ahead of the highly anticipated tournament.
Khumalo was faced with a tough selection decision after working with a pool of players over the past year and a half. Speaking to www.safa.net, Khumalo said that it was unfortunate that only 20 players can be selected for qualifying tournaments.
“We have such a great pool of players and have played several international matches with different players over the past year. This week was very tough as we had to drop a few players from the final squad,” said Khumalo.
“We had many things to consider when selecting the final 20 and it very unfortunate that we cannot use all the players we have identified through the FIFA Talent Development Scheme programme. Some of the thing we had to take into consideration were the MRI testing that is a must at U17 level, along with the personal development of certain players who are about to turn professional and therefore have other obligations at the moment.”
South Africa, who have been drawn into Group B, will kickoff their COSAFA Championships campaign on 5 December 2024 against Botswana at 15h00. They will then play against the Comoros on 7 December 2024 and conclude the group stages against Mauritius on 9 November 2024, where they will be hoping to have secured a semi-final spot.
The semi-finals will take place on 11 December 2024 with the tournament final penciled in for 13 December 2024. The venue of the COSAFA Youth Championships will be announced in due course.
