Pathways look to be opening up again for South Africa’s youngest talent, auguring well for the future of the domestic game as well as the national team.
One of the three finalists for this past season’s award for the best young player in the DStv Premiership has already departed for Major League Soccer in North America with 19-year-old Olwethu Makhanya signing for Philadelphia Union.
Not only did his club Stellenbosch FC earn a tidy windfall after having the Limpopo-born player on their books for a single season, but the young defender has joined a strong club where if he flourishes, he will be on a stage that is becoming a regular bridger to opportunity across the Atlantic in Europe.
Cassius Mailula is headed to FC Toronto in the MLS although that move is yet to be formally confirmed. That will be a second of the young player award finalists on his way despite the fact many promising players have previously found it tough to get away from Mamelodi Sundowns.
The club have a long history of holding onto players, who they have put an unrealistic value on and chased away suitors. As a result, players have found themselves stuck when overseas opportunity has beckoned.
That makes it somewhat strange that the third of the award finalists Thapelo Maseko has chosen to go to Sundowns rather than overseas.
He moves across after a strong season at SuperSport United, during which he earned a national team call-up and is now at a club where competition for places is intense and he is going to find it hard to get regular game time.
Sure, it could be argued, he will learn and improve from training daily with the best players in the South African league but that educative process would have bene better overseas, where coaches are far more inclined to take a gamble on young talent.
Few have been as bold domestically as Steve Barker in giving youngsters opportunity, although in the case of Makhanya he, initially, had virtually no choice when his club were suffering an injury crisis in the defensive ranks.
But to his credit, the Stellenbosch boss persisted with Makhanya and the club have reaped handsome reward with an incoming transfer fee in the region of R15-million for a player they paid virtually nothing for.