Ernst Middendorp Questions Amajita Talent Pool, Calls for Nationwide Scouting
Former Kaizer Chiefs coach Ernst Middendorp has raised serious questions about the way South Africa identifies talent for its national youth teams.
He is arguing that the country could be overlooking talented players outside the established football centres.
Middendorp made the comments in a LinkedIn post titled “UNDER-20 selection Sept 2026”.
While making it clear that his concerns are not directed at the players selected for Amajita, but at the size and reach of the pool from which they were chosen.
“I am not questioning the players selected for Amajita. I am questioning the size of the pool from which they were selected,” wrote the veteran coach.
Middendorp believes South Africa has an enormous amount of football talent, but questioned whether the current system is reaching enough players across the country.
“South Africa has enormous football talent. But if our national youth squads repeatedly emerge predominantly from the established major urban centres, we must ask a difficult question: Are these genuinely the best U20 players in South Africa or simply the best U20 players our current system is capable of seeing?”
The German coach also challenged the idea that talent identification should only become effective once players have entered prominent professional academies.
“Talent identification cannot start when a player reaches Chiefs, Pirates, Sundowns, AmaZulu, Durban City, Stellenbosch or Cape Town City. By then, somebody else has already identified him.”
For Middendorp, the responsibility lies with the national development system to discover players much earlier.
“The responsibility of a national talent-development system is to find the player before everybody knows his name,” he added.
He stressed that he is not calling for regional representation to influence national-team selection.
“There should be no provincial quota for a national team. But there must be nationwide opportunity to be seen,” he argued.
Middendorp believes the debate should now focus on how SAFA, its regions, Local Football Associations and the FIFA Talent Development Scheme can work together to create a broader identification network.
“That, for me, is where the discussion around SAFA, its regions, LFAs and the FIFA Talent Development Scheme (FIFA TDS) should start.”
