Kaizer Chiefs coach Arthur Zwane hailed youngster Mduduzi Shabalala for his performance in the Soweto Derby and said he has the potential to be “one of the best”.
The 19-year-old made his first Soweto Derby start in the DStv Premiership and held on, showing some glimpses of what could be in the future. Although he scored twice in his first season for Amakhosi and the senior team, the South African youth international said that before the match was building up he wanted to start as soon as possible.
Zwane said, “It’s good to see a young player like Mduduzi go there and show his skills, show a bit of pride here in football and I hope he will develop and become one of the players all the best in the future,” Zwane said at FNB Stadium.
“Leadership is a special talent, it seems Nkosingiphile Ngcobo, although it is a little bit explosive, I am ready to give opportunities to young people because I was young and I had the right opportunity to express myself .”
The Chiefs mentor went on to say that the opportunities ‘Mdu’ will get should be common at their level and across South African football to enable the development of our talent pool for Bafana selection.
“I may have gone up and down in my football, but if you look at what we are not doing now, the country is not giving the right young people a chance to go out there and shine, we are – also expect our national team to have a lot of money, good players or the U23 having good players at this level can feed the top national team.
“We don’t give them a chance here (in the PSL) but once we agree on what we want to do, in our side, you will see more young people, because they are the future of this country and if you go back and look at the history of Kaizer Chiefs.
“Whenever the Chiefs are in charge, they have a lot of young players who understand the culture and know what it means to play for a team of leaders and then we can build a strong team. strong, with a strong foundation.
“Our young lads are doing well now, we have a strong backbone and we have to make sure we do the right thing – when Mdu plays for 90 minutes in a game In this way, he encourages other youths to want to join in. That in the future.