Likuena legend Lebajoa Mphongoa has hailed the impact of the Talent Development Scheme in helping unearth young talent across the country following his involvement in the talent identification of 20 players selected during the TDS phase one finale for north region teams at LeFA Technical Centre in Maputsoe on Saturday.

The former Bloemfontein Celtic striker stated that he was impressed with what he saw watching Under-15 teams made of players aged 13-years-old coming from Berea, Leribe, Butha Buthe and Mokhotlong.

“I’m really impressed with young talented players who have been exposed to a very organised tournament through the TDS programme,” Mphongoa said.

“The team from Mokhotlong particular impressed me a lot and I just hope that we will continue to expose them to such competitions to help them reach full potential.

“As they grow, I think it will be very important that when they are 17 or 18, that whoever that will be coaching them at club level will not be afraid to throw them into the deep end. That’s where we tend to lose a lot of talent with many of the coaches afraid to give them opportunities to play in the senior teams.”

Mphongoa encouraged LeFA to come up with more youth football programmes as he feels there is a lot of talent throughout the country that can be developed through program such as TDS.

“There are still many more boys in the villages, who are not part of this programme at the moment and I think we should come up with such programmes to help them develop and reach full potential” he said.

The Lesotho Football Association hit the ground running with the Talent Development Scheme and has been given the greenlight by FIFA to proceed with the second phase of the programme, which will commence in thr upcoming months.

The FIFA funded programme aims to give every talent a chance to be detected and developed.

Source: Lesotho Football Association