Brent Carelse and Thabo September during their tour of the MTN8 trophy in Cape Town
While it is sad for former Ajax Cape Town players to see their team parting ways with the mother club in Amsterdam, the new side can still invest in youth.
This is the view of former Ajax CapeTown, Mamelodi Sundowns, Supersport United and Chippa United midfielder Brent Carelse who was put on the spot to comment on the split.
Carelse and former Supersport United defender Thabo September were on a tour of newsrooms as ambassadors of the MTN8 Trophy.
Carelse gave one of his big smiles and ran his hands over his head when asked about Ajax Cape Town, now called Cape Town Spurs.
"It is painful and sad for us as former Ajax players. The foreign team is out and no one is going to invest in local football. But at the same time, it is good. The guys need to look forward and invest in the youth like before.”
Ajax Cape Town was always lauded for producing great players with a number of those who played outside the country being nurtured by the Parow side.
Brent believes, with the many townships around Cape Town, now is the right time to focus more on local talent, groom players and send them abroad.
He said the team’s focus is to get to the Premier Soccer League.
With the final of the 2020 MTN8 Wafa Wafa tournament taking place next week, Carelse and September are excited about this year’s season even though there were no fans in the stands.
The two legends were also in the province to encourage fans to vote for the Last Fan Standing competition.
“I think the two teams that are in the final of the MTN8 deserve to be there. If you watched the Pirates dominating Chiefs, you would agree that they played well. They also scored goals. But having said that, I think Celtic has been the better team since the bio-bubble. They have improved tremendously even under difficult circumstances,” said Carelse.
September said he was happy that teams are scoring goals as these would benefit chosen charity organisations around the country.
“Going to the finals, we have 18 goals scored. Each goal is R20 000. I hope the final will be a bang. This is an opportunity for charity organisations to reserve a huge amount of money. I cannot say which team will win the final but as Brent has said, Celtic has improved tremendously."
The MTN8 final between Bloem Celtic and Orlando Pirates will take place on Saturday December 12 in Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium.