Curro Nelspruit High School‘s Sandile Khoza, an 18-year-old matriculant, is currently in the United Kingdom where he is undergoing a trial camp with players from all over the world.
The hope is for the 18-year-old to bag a contract with one of the highly respected UK academies, build a career overseas, and set himself up for a long and successful career playing in the Premier League.
The camp is being staged in Manchester, which means that, among others, scouts from the highly respected Manchester United Academy and Manchester City Academy will be present.
Khoza’s coach, Devon Eaton, described how the opportunity came about for the youngster.
“What happened was that he went through to a training camp at Camp Discovery where there were a lot of scouts. It was a three- or four-day camp where they were put through drills,” Eaton told SuperSport Schools Plus.
“It was more for them to learn and for the scouts to have a look. That’s where he was spotted and how the opportunity came about. It was pretty much straight after that they got in communication with him and started lining up this whole process
“I think the trials will go all the way through to October, where there will be a bunch of academies that will be there watching,” he added.
Having coached Khoza from the age of 16, coach Eaton told SuperSport Schools that the youngster was not quite sure about whether or not he wanted to play school football.
“He was, actually, indecisive about playing school soccer. After he decided to play, from there he was number one,” said Eaton.
He described Khoza as a versatile player, one who could play any position on the field.
“I think he’s been the top goal scorer and has had the top assists from Grade 10 through to this year. Now, this year, he’s going to win football player of the year again, and I don’t think it will ever happen again.
“This boy can play anywhere. In Grade 10, we played him at centre-back and he was just a wall in that position. He was unstoppable and no one could get past him.
“From defence, all the way through to attack, he can flip the switch. We often give him a free-roaming game because he creates magic. The game could be tight and there’s Andile creating something,” he enthused.