Emile Witbooi put in an impressive performance for Cape Town City in the goaless playoff game against Orbit College on Saturday, but City’s coach Diogo Peral says they will continue to manage the 16-year-old’s entrance to the professional game.
In a match where both teams struggled to create opportunities, the Amajimbos star showed touches of class as he caused havoc for defenders, and his one shot at goal struck the crossbar.
Having come on at half-time with for former Bafana Bafana star Thulani Serero, Peral said that while Witbooi is incredibly talented, he isn’t physically ready for the demands of 90 minutes of football.
“We know what Emile can do,” Peral said.
“At the moment, if we could get the 20 minutes that Emile gives us, the 25 minutes that he gives us at that intensity and the amount of tracking back he does in those 20 minutes, if we could get that for 90 then, of course, the kid would play, he’d start the game.
“You got to build him up. He’s a really, really talented kid. You saw the amount of time he was on the field and the difference that he made, but we can, we can play him for X amount of minutes, and then you can’t expect him to keep up to this kind of game for 90. So we’ve got to be careful when we put him on.”
Although Peral was disappointed that his teammates didn’t get the ball to Witbooi more in the time that he was on the pitch.
“I think, you get the ball to him, every time he gets the ball, something happens,” he responded to iDiski Times.
“We need to get the ball to him, and we need to get him further up the field. One for the future, definitely. So as he starts getting stronger, his intensity goes up, we start playing him more minutes.
“For sure, he’s the kind of player that’s going to make a massive difference for us next season.”
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