Amajita head coach Raymond Mdaka has admitted that it’s challenging moving from one national junior team to the next though it’s one he embraces.
Mdaka has just returned from a successful 2026 CAF U20 AFCON COSAFA qualifier in Mozambique where his charges not only booked a place in the continental finals in Ghana next year but also defended their regional title.
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Soon after landing, Mdaka and some members of his technical team joined the U23 side in camp ahead of the back-to-back international friendlies against Algeria in Bloemfontein this week. The first match is on Thursday followed by the last one over the weekend at the same venue.
Mdaka told the media on Tuesday that as challenging as the roles are, he was aware of the programme.
“Yeah, quite a challenge, but it’s something that we knew,” said Mdaka.
“It was in our program to say we will go to COSAFA and immediately come back because of the programme. Then we go to the U23, but it’s not everybody. It’s only me and my colleague Coach Karabo, and also the analysts. The rest of the personnel are other groups that were not with us in Mozambique.
“Quite challenging, because you go there, you go and work for almost maybe 14 days, you come back without a rest and you come inside. But it’s something that we can afford.”
Meanwhile, the coach has explained the presence of the Cape Town City duo of Cayden Fortune and Emile Witbooi in both the U20 and U23 teams saying they engaged the club before heading to COSAFA how they will be needed in both teams.
“We engaged with their club even before we went for the tournament because we decided to try and have relationships with the clubs, mostly because the COSAFA is out of the FIFA calendar,” added Mdaka.
“So, you always want to have a good relationship with the clubs so that they can sometimes help you with the players. So, we discussed with them and you saw Cayden and Emile joined us after our first game.
“But then having played those games, they came there then we rested them. And again, now coming from the tournament where we are playing after each and every day, we’ve been in discussion with the team to say these are the boys that we know, is not a difficult thing for us to put them back in the team.”