A school in South Africa is giving children from disadvantaged backgrounds the chance to excel – in football and in the professional workspace.
“We’re the only place in southern Africa that’s giving an elite kid an opportunity to be holistically invested.”
The Ubuntu Football Academy School in Cape Town, South Africa, recently won continental acclaim when they qualified their country for the finals of the CAF African Schools Football Championship.
The school, playing under the South African flag, defeated what was essentially the Malawi national side in the southern African Under-15 qualifiers that were staged in Harare in December.
It is a great achievement, but this school is about so much more than football, as Executive Director Casey Prince explains.
He moved with his young family from his native United States (US) to South Africa 14 years ago with the aim of starting a program that gave children from disadvantaged backgrounds the best possible chance to excel – in football or in the professional workspace.
A total of 22 graduates have gone on to receive academic scholarships in the US to add to the 25 players that have signed for professional clubs in South Africa and overseas.
In all, 28 players have received junior nation team call-ups, with SuperSport United’s Jesse Donn, Kaizer Chiefs’ Luke Fleurs and Stellenbosch FC’s Antonio Van Wyk having received senior call-ups for South Africa too.
Image Above: Okestar Kanyenda of Malawi challenged by Joshua Langeveldt of South Africa during the 2023 CAF African Schools Football Championship COSAFA Day 3 at Gateway High School in Harare on the 16 December 2023 © Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
Munashe Garananga has played for the senior national team of Zimbabwe and this season featured in the UEFA Europa League with Romanian side Sheriff Tiraspol.
“We recognize that in communities, the talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity isn’t,” Prince tells FORBES AFRICA. “And so we feel like we’re the only place in southern Africa that’s giving an elite kid an opportunity to be holistically invested.
“That means his education, his character, leadership and obviously his football. If you are a graduate and you’re playing professionally or in the national team, but you’re a horrible person, then we failed.
“We want every kid to get to Matric and have multiple options, so he can make the choice that excites him.”
The Academy has made strides in a short space of time, but Prince believes there is still much to do in the future, with an exciting new addition in 2024.
“We would love to see players from our academy playing in the (UEFA) Champions League and representing the full national team, we’ve had a few but we want the day when there’s five or six in every Bafana Bafana squad that came from Ubuntu,” he says.
“But we also want to see guys who are just going to do significant things with their lives, become teachers, policemen or other professionals. We had our first wedding this year, we are having the first children born. It’s those exciting things, to see them become great Dads.
South Africa Celebrates being Crowned Champions during the 2023 CAF African Schools Football Championship COSAFA Day 3 at Gateway High School in Harare on the 16 December 2023 © Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
“I guess the new big development in 2024 is that we’re actually adding ladies to the program, which is exceptionally exciting for us.
“We’re having our first four or five girls in the school, along with an Under-12 team, and then from 2025 onwards we’ll start bringing in six or seven girls in every grade to the school. That’s our hope, that we’ll be fully integrated and balanced.”