Regional leagues pit local players against the best emerging talent

Panorama Football Club is attacking the regional footballing landscape on multiple fronts, ensuring the opportunity for measured progression and guided development.

Throughout 2021, weekends will be packed full of high-quality youth football action featuring elite academies and professional youth teams. Saturdays will host the Gauteng Development League (GDL) while Sundays feature the Soweto Academy League (SAL), all interspersed with Rand Central Local Football Association (RCLFA) matches.

This alphabet soup may need some sifting through but Panorama’s three-tiered approach to their development structure is perfectly aligned. “The GDL is debatably the strongest in the country. It features Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns and Supersport, so I would say the GDL is the elite benchmark league for youth football,” said Panorama Technical Director, Roman Schröder.

As the name suggests, the SAL is a Soweto-based league that showcases clubs and academies from across Johannesburg while the RCLFA is made up of the traditional stalwarts of community and amateur football in the city. Giving his players a platform to perform at multiple intensity levels forms part of an assessment that Roman sums in four words: systems, bravery, understanding and sustainability.

“We need to lay the right systems in place to build consistency and continuity, just all the elements we want coming together. Everyone involved needs to be brave enough to take on the task at hand, and the new concepts and philosophy that are demanded. In terms of sustainable development, we need to build an in-house technical team that is strong,” Roman said, hoping to instil in his players the courage needed to dominate the football with a sophisticated style of play.

The pitch is where these ideals are proven and Panorama welcomed GDL outfit Jozi Stars and SAL team Transition Football on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. The 17 April GDL fixtures saw Panorama’s U/13 pick up the club’s only victory of the day, winning 1–0. The U/15s and U/17s each suffered a 3–1 defeat while a physical and often heated U/19 contest ended 1–1.

In the opposite SAL dugout on 18 April was Claudio Lorenzani of Transition Football who is delighted with their pre-season preparations. “We are now starting to see the rewards of playing tougher opposition in preparation for the league. We are also extremely lucky to be working with an amazing club such as ETS West Bromwich Albion Foundation Skills Centre as they are producing fantastic youth players,” said Claudio.

Transition would leave Panorama in good spirts despite their U/13s initially going down, 2–1. Their U/14s would regain some pride with a 3–1 win before Transition’s U/15s and U/17s would run out comfortable winners, notching up 9–2 and 6–0 wins, respectively.

Both leagues are in their infancy and as no empire was built overnight, the true trajectory will begin to develop in the coming weeks and months.