The South African Football Association has launched regional Hi Performance Junior Leagues for the U13, U15 and U17 boys to assist the association to spot talent at an early age.
The new leagues will launch this Sunday (12 April) in all the regions of the Safa Johannesburg, and Alexandra will play in the Joburg Region along with other local football associations such as Jowest, Midrand, Greater Mayfair and Rand Central.
Speaking in an interview with Alex News, the technical director of the Alexandra Northrand Local Football Association, Mxolisi Mngomezulu said the idea of the establishing the Hi Performance Junior Leagues was to enable Safa to spot talent that can be nurtured and developed for the future.
He said each local association will provide a team in each of the age categories of U13, U15 and U17 players to compete in the league, whose hosting will rove around the local associations in that particular pool. Alex will play its launch match on 19 April as they have a bye due to the fact that there are five local associations in the league.
“I see this as a good preparation in exposing young players to competitions outside their own communities. It also enhances the squads’ readiness for the Inter-Local Football Association Tournaments,” Mngomezulu said.
“It will also help us in Alex to measure the level of our football against other local football associations in the region and also enable us to draw conclusions on the type of training interventions that might be needed to get our players to the optimal level.”
Players to be selected for the U13 will be children born on or after 1 January 2003, while the U15s will be children born on or after 1 January 2001 and for the U17 will be children born on or after 1 January 1999.
