My bru, this was crazy awthi yam!
Look, these are the kinds of weeks I’ve craved through this journey of #HustlerHood.
We see and experience things in different ways, and I guess that’s why I have this beautiful space to share how I see things and maybe it entertains, hits home or even inspires someone out there!
I see the world through football’s eyes.
I got to work behind the scenes at the recent Two Oceans Marathon and I got to engage with so many people from the Expo to UCT.
I’m here and there baba. My team, Tottenham, are doing the business on and off the field, I’m spending time with Ajax Cape Town, I’m talking to my friend and associate Martijn Jelissen about one of the guests for the next Diski Nites show.
And wait for it, on my favourite TV show, Shameless, Lip and Fiona are sparring in a scene that delivers the most amount clichés I’ve ever heard said at one time.
I’m also still buzzing from stories from the previous week, when I watched Tiger Woods do his thing with my guy Rea kwaTa Cash who was chilling with amaGrootman.
I also got to talk a little bit about football from the kasi with Ta Ree wakwaLanga and Rowen Hendricks about his career.
I’m just excited because I’m pregnant with ideas baba.
And that brings me to the upcoming transfer and international season. Shooooo, it’s going to be crazy!
But I should also be feeling some type of way about national football and the next wave of stars and ambassadors for South African football!
In my view, I think it’s time Safa starts thinking about its own Safa Cup for such guys and bring back provincial and regional football.
Because, if a youngster can’t get into one of the four national teams, they should at least be testing themselves in selection teams at provincial, regional and district level.
We should be getting guys ready to play with other players from different backgrounds and start to mix it up with different football playing cultures and styles for the benefit of their selected team.
I’m salivating at the prospect of seeing a Western Province U21 side. And I would be really interested in how they divide Gauteng because you know they’ll argue that Johannesburg and Pretoria are not the same.
These kind of organised tournaments for these selection teams, which could also include tours to different cities and even locations around the African continent.
Matches for these invitational teams would also ease the transition for players from club to national-level football and maybe even when they move between cities, because they are used to playing with one another and at different locations around the country and even abroad.
It’s sad that our football guys at these levels don’t engage as a group in selecting teams instead of only as opponents.
There’s a lot on the plate for guys like SA U17 head coach Molefi Ntseki, the U20s’ Thabo Senong and bra David Nothoane of the U23s.
This Safa Cup would be the one of the platforms Ntseki, Nothoane and Senong can see their boys play competitively as different groups instead of only as clubs.
If there are challenges to pitch this concept to corporate sponsors, maybe funds from the Fifa Legacy Fund could be unlocked as this is actually something that presents a national plan that makes sense for the development of our football!
Bring on the Safa Cup and let’s get local football to a top winning level and build top national stars that will entertain crowds at their clubs.