New Generation Primary School pupil Aluve Ntwana made history last week when he became the first player in the inaugural run of the TRA-BIS U13 Football Tournament to be awarded a scholarship to Napoli FC in Italy in July.
The 13-year-old is one of more than 100 primary school pupils who took to the field for six weeks, from April 12 to May 17, in heated competition during the tournament series that aims to provide a platform for the development of young talent in the Border region.
The competition, sponsored by Total Risk Administrators (TRA) and spearheaded by Border Icons in Sport (BIS) included 20 schools from across the city in financially constrained communities and the teams were made up of U13 boys players.
Aluve was scouted by Uefa pro-licensed coach and World Wide Scholarships scout Fabrizio Piccareta who boiled the list down to 30 potential candidates for the scholarship before finally being swayed by Ntwana’s technical proficiency despite only being 13.
Piccareta said: “At this age, you look for the player with the better control and mastery of the ball as well as the calibre of their attitude because that provides a good base from which to build their potential.
“The scholarship entails one week with Napoli FC, which will broaden Aluve’s life experience and will give him a foretaste of his potential career in sport which is an important incentive that can act as a source of guidance for a player at this age.”
Aluve and his mother, Khanyisa are overjoyed with his selection to Italy and believe it is a testament to his hard work.
Aluve’s coach, Theodore Noeka, believes the young players award marks the start of promising development for soccer at New Generation PS.
In addition to Aluve’s selection, Aspiranza Primary School scored big, taking home the first place defeating St Johns Road Primary School 2-1.
The tournament, to be sponsored by TRA for the next five years was introduced this year by BIS to inject much needed development in grassroots soccer at U13 level.
The vision of the tournament is to invigorate community development and sporting talent across Border and to connect young players with potential to federations and academies, national and international opportunities where this potential can be nurtured.
The competition will also be taken to Qonce and Mdantsane in the coming years and will include girls’ teams.
It will be followed by a similar tournament for U13 rugby and water polo, which is in line with the BIS vision to use sport as a tool to reverse social concerns in under resourced schools and communities.
BIS executive member Alan Fritz said the tournament provided momentum towards addressing serious concerns in the Border region regarding the rapid decline of sports facilities lost to vandalism and theft.
Through Swimming SA, Fritz has implemented the development of a high-performance centre in the Western Cape, funded by Lotto and through fundraising, to the tune of R60m that is intended to provide capacity for several sporting codes. Fritz believes prioritising the development of integrated sports facilities provides a solution for infrastructural challenges in sport locally and nationally.
Fritz also believes that working with academies and private schools to establish relationships to share facilities is also an avenue towards mitigating the impact of decimated community sports facilities. Piccareta said that in addition to addressing infrastructural challenges, effort also needs to be made in terms of coaching development to prevent talented players from being lost due to insufficient guidance from coaches.
He said: “In many countries like SA, there is only 1% who make it through professionally because the talent is being lost without good coaching and good infrastructure.
“At local level, it’s important to strengthen structures, organise better and invest in facilities to produce the best players and coaches.
“It’s important to emphasise coaching opportunities and provide these to coaches because if children’s potential is not directed in the right way, their talent can be crushed.
“Competitions like the TRA-BIS soccer tournament are important because from 14 years and older, players need more guidance and more exposure to competitive playing like this tournament, to secure a future for themselves in the sport.”
TRA communications and public relations head Warren Gates said the company had invested R30,000 so far in collaboration with other sponsors including Aquelle, Love the Game, Blacksourcing, NBA, Supersport Schools streaming and MOBIMED.
TRA hopes that their five-year commitment will culminate into a TRA-BIS U13 team that can enter local leagues and play regularly.
“Imagine if one of these boys ends up playing in a European Champions League final or a World Cup.
“That’s what it’s all about,” Gates said.
