With Christmas just over a month away, many families will stock a box or two of Bakers Choice Assorted biscuits.
You know, that big one the children can’t touch without the permission of the adults.
The contents are in all shapes, colours and sizes. Rectangular pink wafer. Round ginger cookie. Chocolate crunchie wrapped in silver foil. Square lemon cream. Apologies for the childhood memory detour. Blame it on the DStv Diski Challenge (DDC), the nursery started in 2014 which serves as a football bakery for budding professionals.
A decade later, the conveyor belt of the Premier Soccer League reserve platform has produced a plethora of players who have carved a niche in the firmament of local football, exciting fans similarly to how the assorted biscuits titillate the tongue.
The professionally organised programme has been a thoroughfare through which promising juniors transitioned to national prominence.
Grant Kekana is not only crucial for his club Mamelodi Sundowns; the centre-back has established himself as a pivotal piece of the Bafana Bafana defensive puzzle.
Cassius Mailula was also in Hugo Broos’ radar until his ill-fated move to Canada before reuniting with Rulani Mokwena at Wydad Athletic in Morocco. For Siyabonga Mabena, the sky is the limit at Sundowns.
His namesake Siyabonga Ngezana was unearthed in the DDC, promoted to the Kaizer Chiefs first team and moved on to ply his trade for FCSB in the Romania SuperLiga. Ngezana graduated alongside Njabulo Blom and Happy Mashiane, though the latter has found less happier moments after a promising start.
Today, the Chiefs first team boasts a squadron of youngsters fine-tuned by Arthur Zwane and company in the reserve team. Mduduzi Shabalala, Mfundo Vilakazi, Wandile Duba and Samkelo Zwane are all enjoying a new lease on life in Amakhosi’s reconstruction and development programme championed by Nasreddine Nabi.
The stars that are coming up now are breaking into the pro ranks at a younger age than was the case a decade ago
Steve Barker is honing Devin Titus, Antonio van Wyk, Oshwin Andries, Lance Weaver and Mervin Boji who are finding their feet at Stellenbosch FC first team, where Jayden Adams is the cream of the crop.
But Relebohile Mofokeng has been a successful product of the DDC project. He has stood head and shoulders above the rest of all his DDC peers since being promoted to the Orlando Pirates first team.
He has revelled in repaying Jose Riveiro’s trust in him, bagging major milestones with a jaw-dropping upward trajectory. Now a Bafana regular, Mofokeng, who turned 20 on Wednesday, left the teenage floor to Mohau Nkota, his fellow DDC teammate who has joined him in the Bucs first team in sensational fashion.
Nkota hit a double and had The Ghost in delight, his partnership with Mofokeng raising the roof at Orlando Stadium.
Gavin Hunt relies heavily on a contingent of youngsters from the reserve league at SuperSport United. One of them, Shandre Campbell, moved to Club NXT in Belgium’s second tier Challenger Pro League.
Cape Town City coach Eric Tinkler lamented the gap between the DDC and the PSL. But it is up to the 1996 Afcon winner to help his greenhorns like Keanu Cupido and Gabriel Amato to blossom.
The stars coming up now are breaking into the pro ranks at a younger age than was the case a decade ago. Most of them would have fallen by the wayside had they not been caught by the reserve league net.
The beauty about the DDC is that 10 years into its existence we’re slowly moving away from suddenly discovering a good Bafana player who makes his debut at 28 not having played for any junior national teams.
Clubs across the PSL spectrum are growing their own timber. The only way for them to gain experience is by playing. Coaches must throw them in the deep end. They can either sink or swim.
On the evidence of what is unfolding, some have been able to not only hold their heads above the water but are cruising swimmingly in making a name for themselves.
Long may we continue to have a choice assorted of budding stars.
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