Manchester United have enquired about South African U16 talent Emile Witbooi after his exploits at the recent U16 tournament in Europe.
Despite losing all their matches at the UEFA development tournament in Poland recently, there’s some good news coming from the South African U16 team with School of Excellence’s Emile Witbooi (No.15 image) now reported to be receiving enquiries from Premier League and European giants Manchester United.
Witbooi (15), a son of Mamelodi Sundowns winger Surprise Ralani, was one of the outstanding players for the SA team in Poland, scoring one goal and providing one crucial assist as well.
Coached by the renowned youth coach and former Mamelodi Sundowns development coach Zipho Dlangalala, the hastily arranged U16 team lost to Northern Ireland 2-1, got hammered by Poland 5-0 and lost their final game 3-2 to Luxembourg.
Dlangalala, who has worked with players like Keagan Dolly, Paseka Mako, Siphelele Mkhulise and many more as juniors, is not surprised by the link to Man United for Witbooi as he says the young man was one of the outstanding players in the tournament and also got a special mention from the UEFA Technical assessors.
“Without a doubt, we had some of the players that really put up their hands in the event, and the UEFA Technical observers mentioned four of our players that stood out,” said Dlangalala about Witbooi and his team.
“And there’s no secret about it – it was Emile Witbooi of School of Excellence, Kabelo Sibande who is at Clapham High School and Mamelodi Sundowns, Lazola Maku who is at Ubuntu Cape Town and Neo Bohloko who is at Kaizer Chiefs.
“These four players stood out and there is Junaid Seedat who is also at Ubuntu Cape Town, and I’m talking here about players who are really gifted, that showed class against very strong and physically imposing European players.”
iDiski Times understands that not only United are monitoring Witbooi and some of his SA U16 teammates, with some European clubs’ scouts believed to have been present at the tournament.
Dlangalala describes ‘Modric’ as Witbooi is popularly known at the School of Excellence, as a special talent with all the attributes that are known from promising SA players.
“He’s like most South African kids that are talented, very skilful and creative. He’s a kind of player that I hope like other players like him, I would wish as a country we need to give them special treatment,” said Dlangalala when asked to describe the type of a player that Witbooi is.
“We need to accept that some players are very special and are different, we need to give some players special treatment because they would give us far more than others.
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“It’s not surprising that around the world you get players like that, players like Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar, Ronaldinho and many more, they would not be where they were if they were not getting some special treatment. So, it’s not wrong to do so and by doing so we can maximise their talent.”
The School of Excellence recently sold South African U17 international sensation Siyabonga Mabena to Mamelodi Sundowns and he is expected to lead Amajimbos at the 2023 AFCON U17 tournament in Algeria later this month.
Mabena (16) has already made his debut for the star-studded Sundowns senior team, making him the youngest Masandawana player in the PSL era.
This story first appeared in the this week’s iDiski Times newspaper, which is available for free at Shoprite stores in Gauteng.
