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DEVELOPMENT : Happy Jele

THE South African soccer family must channel more resources into development to stop Bafana Bafana and other national teams from being a laughing stock.

"That is the only way for us to go if we are serious about becoming one of the giants of African and global soccer again," said Orlando Pirates defender Happy Jele.

He has urged the people of Mpumalanga to support the SAB Under-21 National Championships, which gets under way today in KaNyamazane and surrounding areas.

Jele is a graduate of the SAB Regional League after playing for Walter Stars before he was signed by Pirates.

The national championships will feature all nine provinces and a team from University Sport South Africa.

"There is an urgent need to start paying more attention to development," said Jele.

"We won't be able to produce quality players for Bafana Bafana and other national teams if development is neglected. South Africa has talent in abundance but we are not doing enough to develop it.

"We need to invest more resources into the developmental leagues."

SA Breweries chief Vincent Maphai said they were proud to see more graduates of the Regional League in the professional ranks.

"We are delighted to see graduates of our league like Happy Jele, Lucky Lekgwathi, Reneilwe Letsholonyane, Darren Keet, Tlou Molekwane, Ayanda Dlamini, Andile Jali and many others doing so well."

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Sat May 25 07:52:37 SAST 2013 ::

Jun 11, 2012

Mhungumbye

Bafana Bafana is defence is leaking like overflowing vaal river in your absence.
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Jun 11, 2012

Seele

That is true mfana, lets u r recovering from ur knee injury
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Jun 11, 2012

mrc22

Batshele Happy look what is happening in our National Squad.
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Jun 11, 2012

Skomoro99

We have players,its the selection criteria used which cost us big time.Players r selected based on past achievements not current form.We shud have players from teams that perform well in the league n cup games.The winning mentality is not there coz we select mediocre players promoted by the media.How can a player like Sandilands b selected against that SSU goalkeeper who actually won a cup wit his team? This is clear indication than players r selected based on media praises,give the youngsters a chance in freindly matches like Brazil did with thier World Tour.
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Jun 11, 2012

ONEE

@ Skomoro
couldnt have said it better.
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Jun 11, 2012

Papage

Everybody is becaming a Football specialist, but our soccer is going nowhere.
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