TWELVE u.12 soccer players from Bree Primary School are competing in the Danone Nations Cup World Finals in Marrakesh, Morocco, the world’s biggest world football tournament for children aged between 10 and 12.
This is a culmination of a journey that started in January this year when over 2 000 schools registered to compete in the Danone Nations Cup, managed by the South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa).
Danone Southern Africa held a send-off function for the youngsters on Monday, October 19, that was attended by the Gauteng MEC for Education, Banyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng Department of Education director of school sports, Cedric Ranchor, the president of the South African Schools Football Association (Sasfa), Mandla ‘Shoes’ Mazibuko, and CEO, Steve Pila.
For Bree Primary School, who has already won the national finals twice before and the world title in 2009, this is a dream come true. “After winning the world title we have not managed to go beyond the provincial finals for the past five years,” said Bree Primary School principal, Dave Kalicharan. “This year my coach, Bafana Dlamini, and I sat down and decided we were going to put together a team that would bring us back to the glory days and that is what we did. We have not put them under pressure, but given them the drive to believe in themselves and encouraged them to dream big.”
There are 32 countries competing in the world tournament and South Africa has been drawn in a pool with Belgium, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. The pool games take place on Friday, October 23, and will be followed by a knockout phase to determine the pool results and who will compete in the finals.
