Rowell: We’ll produce more international stars

You are currently viewing Rowell: We’ll produce more international stars

Ajax Cape Town youth academy administrator Kevin Rowell believes that the Urban Warriors will continue to produce more international stars in the future.

The academy administrator has stressed the importance of sharing knowledge with other administrators during their European tours with the youth team.

‘It’s great to travel overseas to places like Holland with the youngsters and get to meet people who are also involved in youth football development and administration,” Rowell told the Ajax Cpe Town website.

‘We tend to exchange the knowledge that we have. This also happened during our reserve team’s recent trip abroad in which they did very well.

‘I would like to see us continue our tradition of promoting more youngsters from the academy into the first team every year because we are not a buying club.

‘We nurture and develop our own future stars from the academy. Then they are elevated to the first team to further their careers.’

Rowell backed the Urban Warriors academy to produce more international stars like Thulani Serero and Steven Pienaar, who managed to establish themselves at European and Dutch Eredivisie giants Ajax Amsterdam.

‘We have produced many talented footballers from our academy who have had successful careers. Many know Serero and Pienaar as prime examples,’ He added.

‘But now we have the likes of (Brandon) Petersen, (Travis) Graham, (Jody) February, (Tashreeq) Morris, (Rivaldo) Coetzee, (Bantu) Mzwakali and I can go on, and on. There’s more to come from the academy.’