It will be a chance of a lifetime
for 12 under-12 kids from Bree Primary School, who leave for Marrakesh, Morocco
today to compete in the biggest football tournament for kids between 10 and 12
in the world, Danone Nations Cup World Finals.
This is a culmination of a
journey that started in January this year when over 2 000 Schools registered to
compete in the Danone Nations Cup, managed by the South African Schools
Football Association (SASFA).
Danone Southern Africa gave the
boys a send-off function yesterday that was attended by the Gauteng MEC for
Education, Banyaza Lesufi, the Gauteng Department of Education Director –
School Sports, Cedric Ranchor as well as the President of the South African
Schools Football Association (SASFA) Mandla ‘Shoes’ Mazibuko and CEO, Steve
Pila.
For Bree Primary School, who have
already won the national finals twice before – going on to win the World Final
in 2009, this is a dream come true. “After winning the world title we
have not managed to go beyond the provincial finals for the past 5 years,” said
Bree Primary principal, Dave Kalicharan. “This year my coach, Bafana
Dlamini, and I sat down and decided we were going to put together a team that
would bring us back to the glory days and that is what we did. We went on
a recruitment drive to source a couple of extra players to boost our team and
they joined the school this year. We have not put them under pressure,
but given then the drive to believe in themselves and encouraged them to dream
big.”
There are 32 countries competing
in the tournament and South Africa has been drawn in a pool with Belgium, the
Netherlands and Saudi Arabia. The pool games will take place on Friday,
23 October. This will be followed by a knockout phase to determine the pool
results and who will compete in the finals. The last day, Sunday, 25 October,
the 32 teams will play their final match in the main Marrakesh stadium.
When asked what he wanted to take
out from this experience, captain, Ntando Simayile said: “I will get to
travel by plane for the first time, see a desert for the first time, get to
understand nutrition better and I am really looking forward to staying in a
fine hotel. I also want to learn as much as I can about football and
watch how other countries play. I have seen some videos of previous
Danone Nations Cup world finals and I have seen some spectacular goals
scored. I also want to have lots of fun.”
About Danone
Danone
Southern Africa is part of the Danone Group, one of the fastest-growing food
companies in the world. Danone is present in over 120 countries across
all continents. With 160 plants and around 100,000 employees, the Danone Group
is the number one worldwide for Fresh Dairy Products. Danone’s mission is to
bring health through food to as many people as possible.
One of the core values of the Danone Nations Cup
tournament is to encourage young people to believe in their dreams. Through
this initiative Danone offers a sporting event that reaches out to and inspires
millions of children all over the world
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