CAF Boss Patrice Motsepe on What Kenya and Co Can Learn from South Africa, Morocco’s AFCON U20 Success

CAF boss Ptrice Motsepe has advised African countries to learn from South Africa. Photos: CAF

CAF Boss Patrice Motsepe on What Kenya and Co Can Learn from South Africa, Morocco’s AFCON U20 Success

Joel Omotto 17:45 - 19.05.2025

CAF president Patrice Motsepe has advised African countries to follow the blueprint of Morocco and South Africa if they want to succeed in the continent like the two countries.

CAF president Patrice has advised African countries to learn from Morocco and South Africa if they want a template for success.

Morocco and South Africa reached the 2025 U20 Africa Cup of Nations final, with the latter winning it following a 1-0 victory, and Motsepe is thrilled that the investment made in youth football in those countries is producing results.

“It is a moment of great pride for us because the two nations South Africa and Morocco have invested in and trained in and developed some of Africa’s best young players and now, I think in the earlier match against Egypt and Nigeria,” Motsepe said in Egypt on Sunday.

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“African football is really growing exponentially, there is a huge amount of good progress that is taking place. I always saw my role to lay that foundation so that those who take over from me should continue on this legacy that all of us are building.

How Have Morocco and SA Improved?

Bafana Bafana
South Africa U20 after AFCON triumph. (Credit: SABC) South Africa U20 coach offers Bafana Bafana blueprint for success after AFCON triumph. (Credit: SABC)

“Football plays an important role in the growth and development of our youth but also an important role in the sort of values and moral and values and ethical standards, governance and legality that we want to uphold.”

Morocco have built structures to develop young talents and also set up competitions to give them exposure and so is South Africa, who have a very competitive youth league known as DStv Diski Challenge, where each of the 16 top fight sides has a team that competes in it.

Players from these leagues get promoted to the senior teams before they later make it to the national sides and the results have been good performances from both countries.

Kenya can perhaps learn from this as it has a huge pool of young talent, some of who were part of the Rising Stars team at the just-concluded AFCON and got eliminated at the group stage.