Ricardo Katza impressed by SA U15s, as young guns hold their own at World Cup

Former Bafana Bafana defender Ricardo Katza has heaped praise on what he has witnessed so far at the inaugural Fifa U15 World Cup & Festival, where the young South Africans have already made a statement at the tournament.

The SA U15s pulled off a great upset when they beat France 3-2 in their high-quality match in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Monday afternoon.

The result placed them in second position with a better goal difference ahead of France in their Group A. Out of five games, the young South Africans have managed three wins, drawing and losing one apiece so far at the tournament.

Speaking to Sunday World in a Zoom interview on Monday, Katza said the timing of this inaugural U15 World Cup comes at a perfect time as far as SA football is concerned, given that senior national team coach Pitso Mosimane has invested in youth football and development.

READ: Mosimane’s mission is to produce players for the national team

Mosimane’s development vision bearing fruit

“Coach Pitso’s wife [Moira Tlhagale] is here as well because their son [Rea Mosimane] is playing in the team. And Moira told me how well the club [Pitso Mosimane Youth Football] is doing in the Gauteng Development League,” Katza said.

“And she said that the kids already at that age are talking about corner one and corner two, so that is what coach Pitso has brought into that development structure.

“So, this is a good time for us as a country, for our kids and young coaches to be part of such an opportunity and tournament. I think the nice thing about these tournaments; you see the same coach and that’s nice because there is consistency in this.”

Physical gap remains a challenge

As far as the standard is concerned, the SuperSport United legend admitted that South Africa is slightly behind but is not too far off.

“When I look at some of these boys here, we are so far behind, just in our physical structure. And you can see these 14 and 15-year-old boys are already massive, and sometimes we say they’re over age, but they’re not,” Katza said.

READ: Pitso Mosimane taking South African football development to the next level

“If you look at other countries, established countries like England, Spain, you can see that those kids are being fed properly and hit the gym a lot. There is a certain level of expertise that goes into the development.

“And I think for us, all I’m hoping for is that we put the structures in place and work from the structure. Because if the structure is in place, you can always go back to see where you’ve gone wrong.

Skill levels encouraging despite structural deficiencies

“But when I say that we are far behind, I’m not necessarily speaking about the skills, because we played some nice football. I am referring to how some of the teams are so organised, on and off the field. You can see that they’re very patient in their build-up.

Katza added: “I’ve watched some of our games and our players; some of our players just go all over the place, you know, trying to win the game. But if you look at other countries, more established countries, they are very structured.

“And I think if our kids want to play in Europe, they need to learn to be disciplined, patient, disciplined in the build-up. But other than that, I think when it comes to skill, we can compete technically.”

Katza travelled to Azerbaijan through an agency called Centre Circle Consultancy by Rob Moor, where he is there to assist with the scouting of talent and develop his skills as a junior coach.

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