Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams has hailed teenage sensation Emile Witbooi and the Amajita squad after reaching the 2026 U20 Cosafa Cup final and qualifying for the 2027 U20 Africa Cup of Nations in Ghana.
Raymond Mdaka’s troops secured a come-from-behind 4-2 win over the U20 national team of Zambia to book a place in the final against host Mozambique or Namibia on Sunday.
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With youth being one of the main focuses of the new era of new head coach Pitso Mosimane and looking towards blooding in new talent for the project, Witbooi has emerged as a major talent, at the age of 18.
He’s been a key part of the U15, U17, U20 and was named in the U23 national team squad this week, capped off with an incredible solo goal in the U20 Cosafa Cup semi-final on Friday afternoon.
Williams says it brings excitement for South African football, and the whole squad tuned in to support Raymond Mdaka’s troops, whom he believes will be knocking on the door of the senior team soon.
“First and foremost, congratulations to the U20 team, Amajita, for what they’ve done, for qualifying again, back-to-back,” he said at the Bafana presser.
“That’s the steps that you want to take. It’s to be there, be a constant feature there, and they’ve done that now again. And I mean, when you saw the fourth goal from Emile Witbooi dribbling so many players, and then to slot the ball in the back of the net, amazing.
“You know the boy, high-quality player. You see it week in, week out at Cape Town City. But the team, that they’ve got in a few years’ time some of them will be knocking on the national team door, and you know we’ve got a coach who mentioned, in his previous press conference that he’ll be keeping his eye on them.
“So, they need to keep working hard, go out there and win AFCON again, and then definitely in a few years’ time, months’ time for some of them, they’ll be part of us.”