MAMELODI Sundowns were once again the last South African team standing at the Future Champions Gauteng International Tournament, missing out on a podium finish by a whisker after finishing fourth.

Sundowns, guided by Godfrey Sapula, will represent SA at the Brazil tournament later this year for the second successive time.

Sundowns were defeated 2-0 by Congo's CESD La Djiri in a third place play-off match at the Nike Football Training Centre in Soweto at the weekend.

Clube Atletico Mineiro from Brazil won the under-17 event featuring 15 clubs from all over the world for a third consecutive time, after beating Club Tijuana from Mexico on penalties.

Sundowns' director of football, Mike Ntombela said the success of their junior teams is a clear indication they are beginning to focus more on development.

"We have Percy Tau, the youngster in the senior team, who is a good story to tell about our development programme."

Development coach Sam Mbatha added: "We have 60 youngsters under 10 years from all the nine provinces that we selected and keep on monitoring. The impressive ones will be added into the academy."