The U17 national team talent identification exercise has now reached the regional level as coach Declerk Msakakuona and his panel are this weekend expected to select 40 players from the four regions for national camping.
The exercise started at district level last weekend with District Clusters comprising of two to three districts.
Each cluster came up with 20 players who are over the weekend expected to compete for places at regional level.
“We identified about 340 players from last week’s exercise and we expect to have at least 100 players through the regional exercise this weekend.
“Still, we will have to identify about 40-50 best players from the 100 and these are the players who will be called for national camping so that we closely monitor them while the remaining players from the 100 will be on standby.
“We have talent in the country and we are expecting to have a wider choice of players from this exercise,” he said.
The Junior Flames are expected to compete at this year’s Cosafa U-17 tournament which will be played as part of the Region 5 Games in Lesotho in December.
The team is expected to play host to the 2022 Region 5 games which will be used as the 2023 AFCON Youth Qualifiers.
The exercise will be held as follows
Central Region
Saturday, 5th June 2021 at Nankhaka Stadiumnp
Northern Region
Sunday, 6th June 2021 at Luwinga Technical Center
Eastern Region
Saturday, 5th June 2021 at Balaka Stadium
Southern Region
Sunday, 6th June at Mpira Stadiumppl
