* It is so encouraging to witness young African footballers like yourselves being afforded an opportunity to participate in such a competition
* We know that you all want to be great African footballers like Jay Jay Okocha and Mohammed Salah but it is a journey—Adebayor
Maravi Express
Legends of the African game, Emmanuel Adebayor of Togo, Daniel Amokachi of Nigeria and Tanzanian Abdi Kassim Sadalla paid a visit to the CAF African Schools Football Championship Continental finals boys team hotel on Monday to share some words of wisdom and encouragement.
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The three African greats are part of the invited CAF Legends in Zanzibar, and in line with affording the participating youngsters an unforgettable experience at the Finals, CAF invited the legends to a special dinner for the teams where they encouraged the U-15 boys to embrace the spirit of fair play and make use of the exciting platform afforded to them by CAF.
“It is so encouraging to witness young African footballers like yourselves being afforded an opportunity to participate in such a competition,” said Togolese legend, Emmanuel Adebayor.
“This is beyond football. It is about affording you an opportunity to learn about and from your fellow African brothers and sisters, which is what we need to encourage as fellow Africans.
“While winning is a great feeling, it is important that you display sportsmanship and fair play, as that will in the long term help you both on and off the field” he added.
The former Arsenal FC star also cautioned the budding stars about the looming danger of fake player agents who prey on African talent with deceptive promises of football careers abroad.
“You are the best young players in your respective countries, which is why you are here today,” he continued. “We know that you all want to be great African footballers like Jay Jay Okocha and Mohammed Salah but it is a journey.
“There are so many dangers to being in a rush, such as falling victim to fake player agents. They promise to take you to big clubs abroad only to take advantage of you, so we want to encourage you to be vigilant.
“CAF is also raising awareness about such dangers, which we encourage you to take note of and not fall victim to,” cautioned Adebayor.
The visit to the teams’ hotel marks an exciting milestone to the countdown of the second season of the much-anticipated CAF African Schools Football Championship Continental Finals.
Jean Sseninde of Ghana
Legends of the African women’s game, Amanda Dlamini of South Africa and Jean Sseninde of Uganda also paid a visit to the girls’ hotel on Monday to share their encouragement and motivation ahead of the competition that started today.
The draw, which was conducted by Amokachi himself alongside Sseninde, saw the participating teams officially grouped into two groups — with the girls’ division having the hosts Tanzania in Group A alongside Morocco and Congo Republic while Group B sees South Africa, Togo, The Gambia and Uganda taking each other on.
In the boys’ division, Tanzania headline Group A as the tournament hosts and will be up against Senegal and Uganda while Group B has South Africa, who played host to the finals last season, up against Benin, Guinea and Libya.
The boys are playing full pitch size eleven aside, while the girls compete in the eight-aside format and winners of both competitions will each receive US$300,000 prize money, runners-up each receiving US$200 ,000, while the bronze medallists will each take home US$150,000 — courtesy of CAF’s partnership with the Motsepe Foundation to be utilised for development projects within schools.
The CAF African Schools Football Championship is a first in world football, featuring school going boys and girls under the age of 15 competing internationally against each other in a tournament that also affords them unique self-development skills and knowledge through the programme’s unique capacity building initiatives.
The four-day tournament marks the conclusion of season two of the ground-breaking youth football competition by CAF, which has seen a 40% increase in participation with over 800,000 young boys and girls from 28,862 schools and 44 countries participating in the 2023/24 season.—Reporting by CAFonline
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