Pretoria - The inaugural Lucas Radebe Football Festival, which will cater for boys and girls under the age of 15, was unveiled in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
The tournament will run from 3 - 7 October at the University of Johannesburg's Soweto campus and is the culmination of a longstanding relationship between First National Bank (FNB) and the South African football icon.
It will consist of a development leg, which includes development teams from the Football First Programme and an international leg, which includes boys' and girls' teams from South Africa, Namibia and Zambia.
Radebe, who was popularly known as "Rhooo" by soccer fans, is a former Leeds United and Bafana Bafana player and is renowned for being a world-class centre back and a great ambassador for the sport.
Expressing his excitement about the festival, Radebe said: "Throughout my football career and specifically while playing abroad, I remained committed to ploughing back what I had learnt here at home and abroad into the development of South African football, especially at grassroots level.
"This tournament is the start of my commitment to doing so and I thank FNB for partnering with me in such an important project. I am humbled by the fact that FNB decided to dedicate the festival to my career and it just reminds me how blessed I have been in having a successful football career," he said.
South African Football Association (SAFA) Director of Development, Serame Letsoaka, said: "We are purposely combining a development festival with an international festival.
"The development squads could very well produce international players in future and we would like the development players to be exposed to the match protocols involved in an international match. They will also be exposed to a level of football that they can aspire to, which should motivate them even more to train hard and to persevere."
Early in 2012, Radebe will also host a Soweto Schools' Football Tournament, where young talent from local schools will be identified to form a Soweto Schools' development team.
This development team will compete against a composite team selected from the inaugural Lucas Radebe Football Festival.
During the course of the festival, the players will also attend life skills sessions presented by the Macsteel Maestros Programme.
The FNB Football First Programme has been running with great success since May 2011 in Pietermaritzburg, Mthatha, Thohoyandou, George and Kimberley at the FNB artificial pitches.
Three coaches - two male and one female - were identified and trained per pitch and have been responsible for presenting various weekly training sessions and two festivals per pitch over the past five months.
The coaches have now identified their boys' and girls' development squads who will compete against each other in the inaugural Lucas Radebe Festival.
Development festivals were also presented in Namibia and Zambia as part of the FNB 2010 Legacy Programme.
"Now that we are celebrating the legacy of the 2010 FIFA World Cup through the FNB 2010 Legacy Programme, we also thought it fit to celebrate the career of one of South Africa's most successful football legends by dedicating this festival to his amazing career," says Bernice Samuels, Chief Marketing Officer of FNB.
Former President Nelson Mandela famously said of Radebe: "This is my hero." - BuaNews
