Cape Town City assistant coach Lebohang Manyama has revealed the club's ambition to send young talent Emile Witbooi to Europe in the near future.
Witbooi, the son of former South African professional player Surprise Ralani, joined the Cape Town City academy in January from the School of Excellence.
The Citizens beat Mamelodi Sundowns to secure his signature.
The teenage sensation has been impressing in the junior ranks at Cape Town City and for the South African under-17 team. On Tuesday, he scored a brace in Amajimbos' 7-4 victory over Algeria in the FIFA U17 TDS 6 Nations tournament in Côte d'Ivoire.
In an interview with SABC Sport, Manyama expressed the club's desire to see Witbooi play in Europe rather than focusing solely on the Betway Premiership.
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“I think for me, a player like him, their vision should be Europe,” said Manyama during the Betway Premiership launch.
“To push for a debut in the PSL? Yeah, it will happen if it’s meant to happen. But I see him as a player that can go and do a lot of things in Europe. And I think for him, the earlier the better.
“Our vision as a club is to try and get him there as soon as possible. But obviously we have to try and give him experience in our league because he needs to show what he can do.
“I cannot promise that you will see him this season, he also needs to understand that the first team and football at large is a business and is a business of results.
“As much as we want to give him the opportunities that I think he deserves, he’s shown, we trained with him the whole pre-season. What everybody is talking about…we see even worse at training.
“But you also got to be careful with him and not push him too soon because you never know the time.”
Manyama likened the 15-year-old attacking midfielder to former Ajax Amsterdam star Thulani Serero, who also left SA at young age from Ajax Cape Town academy.
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“He’s one of the best that I’ve seen to be quite honest, already I’ve seen what I saw in (Thulani) Serero when I saw him (the first time),” added Manyama.
“I mean yeah, there’s ways to channel this, we can also channel him like Thulani to Europe immediately.
“Why keep him for us to instead of waiting for him to go shine in Europe and come back and prosper in the national team.”
