By Ayanda Nyuswa
South Africa’s Under 20 head coach Raymond Mdaka has credited the DSTV Diski Challenge (DDC) for playing an important role in football development in South Africa, as Amajita captured the Under 20 Africa Cup of Nations crown. South Africa beat Morocco 1-0 at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo on Sunday night, courtesy of a Gomolemo Kekana second half strike, to win a historic first ever AFCON title. Amajita have followed in the footsteps of Bafana Bafana’s in 1996 and Banyana Banyana’s in 2022 teams, in scooping the continental title.
The core of Raymond Mdaka’s team featured players who ply their trade in the South African reserve league, the DSTV Diski Challenge. This includes Kekana who netted the winning goal, and Stellenbosch FC’s Tylon Smith who walked away with the player of the tournament award. Mdaka has hailed the DDC for the role it plays in developing talent in South African football, and making things easy for the coaches to keep track of young talent.
“I salute the DDC because it made it easy for us to be able to see players weekend over weekend going to different places, seeing them and also following them the country is so big, if it wasn’t for the DDC we weren’t going to be able to see them. You couldn’t drive maybe to have follow ups but through the DDC we were able to do that. We salute and we say they have done a good job, as much as we say we have won it but they have done a good job for the country,” said Mdaka.
