29 Apr 2021

Botswana national under 17 football team has started preparations for the upcoming African Union Sports Council (AUSC) Region 5 Games slated for Lesotho in December.  

Speaking in an interview recently, team’s caretaker coach, Tebogo Mokute said they had started building a formidable squad ahead of the AUSC Region 5 Games and other upcoming competitions.

Mokute noted that all the players who were part of the U-17 had graduated, hence 70 players were selected to help find a good crop of players from, in order to prepare a team for the games and COSAFA tournament in December

He further stated that they were also eyeing the next U-17 AFCON finals, hence the decision to start preparations early.

“Even the age group of the players is based on the criterion of these tournaments respectively,” he said.

Mokute said he was given two weeks to start working on building a solid team to represent Botswana at the upcoming tournaments and other regional games.

Last week, he said he had the first batch of 35 players from southern region, which who were in camp for three days, followed by another batch of 35 players from the northern side.  

He said he believed that he would have a squad that would be able to compete during the games, adding that they were taking part in the AUSC games to measure their preparedness for other upcoming  tournaments.

Mokute noted that from the 70 players he called for the camps, he would select about 25-30 strong squad that would be called for camp in preparation for the games.

He said the two groups in camp was one way of trying to unearth football talent.

His wish, he said was to turn the under 17 and 20 teams into formidable squads.

The 70 players were from the Botswana Integrated Sports Association and Botswana Primary School Association structures, as well as the elite youth league structures.

He said one way of having great football development was by ensuring that there were available youthful structures, adding that the senior national football team, Zebras had been lacking a feeder team.

Mokute said the Under 17, 20 and 23 teams were meant to feed the national team, adding that proper development would help the national team do well in major tournaments. ENDS