Ubuntu Football Academy's journey to victory at Africa’s Bayhill tournament

“Football was never meant to be such an intense part of my life, but God called me here – and here I am, more than 15 years later,” said Casey Prince, the founder and executive director of Ubuntu Football Academy, a transformative youth development programme, which recently won the Bayhill tournament for the first time in their history.

The Bayhill tournament is the biggest and most prestigious Under-19 football tournament in Africa.

A total of 32 teams competed in eight groups.

The Western Cape was represented by 18 teams, with 14 sides coming from other provinces and abroad.

Speaking about their historic victory, Prince noted that the competition had long eluded them since the club’s inception.

“When we first started, we were a bit clueless and didn’t know what to expect. We began with a group of 11- to 12-year-olds. We had this idea that, even if we just worked with that one group of youngsters, that would be enough.

"It came from trying to take a manageable first step.

"We focused on what was important for that group of players, which was the Strandfontein tournament. Winning that tournament was our first goal."

Coming from the United States, Prince shares how different football is in South Africa compared to back home, especially at grassroots level.

“Flair and trickery are a big part of the game here.

“There are some basic technical skills that American kids have over South African kids, but that’s just down to the resources available.

“American kids can strike the ball better than South African kids, but that’s only because every American field they train on has multiple goalposts, whereas South African kids in the townships or Cape Flats communities often don’t have any goalposts.

“And if they do, they probably don’t have nets.

He shares that the Bayhill tournament theme was: stick together, give it everything, and everyone matters.

And, it seems, Prince and his academy live by this.

Cape Argus