Patrick Mabedi lauds raw talent
Malawi Under-20 National Football Team Coach Patrick Mabedi has said the country is blessed with talent in rural areas which is not exploited due to lack of exposure.
Mabedi said this at the end of the recent Under-20 regional talent identification exercise where his panel scouted 67 players to go into camp later this month ahead of the 2021 Cosafa Under-20 championships.
“We have noted through the exercise that Malawi has a lot of talented players in the districts that can help our nation. But lack of exposure to organised competitive football is killing their talent because they remain in the rural areas and end up just playing social football.
“It was a great exercise that has helped us to find good players that we wanted. We have also learnt a number of things that need to be improved in the districts to help develop football in the country,” he said.
Mabedi hoped that the newly introduced Football Association of Malawi District Leagues will also help to expose rural players to realise their full potential.
The players were identified from a pool of 355 trialists, who were scouted by the National Youth Football Association (NYFA) and the Malawi Schools Sports Association (Massa) during the district cluster talent identification exercise held between July 17th to 18th.
