Stellenbosch FC head of youth Jean-Pierre Farrugia outlines club vision

It’s become a habit for coach Steve Barker to hand opportunities to bright, young prospects in the elite league and he will no doubt be assessing the squad recently crowned winners of the Engen Champ of Champs. 

Farrugia, who led the team that beat Mamelodi Sundowns in the U-18 tournament, explains the process. 

"We're starting slowly to build our academy step-by-step, and this is another part of that journey. Obviously, our DDC [Diski Challenge] has produced a lot of young players that have moved into our PSL team, and all we want to do is just start younger," said Farrugia.

"This has been a work of almost two years, working with this group of players with a couple of new additions, so it's been a lot of hard work.

"We've had a lot of disappointments, so we're very happy now, but there's been a lot of speed bumps along the way. So, to get to this point right now is unbelievable."

Farrugia finds Barker’s approach to have faith in so many players from the Stellies youth academy refreshing. 

"I mean, I have to say, massive credit to Coach Steve, Wes [Sergel, assistant coach], Van [Evangelos Vellios, DDC head coach], Jason [Rhoda, DDC assistant coach] – these guys have the bravery to do it because it's not common, and they do it repeatedly, year after year.

"It comes from the top [with] Coach Steve, who just has such an unbelievable nature to give people opportunities, including myself. So, I'm very grateful for that, and I know he's ecstatic with this [achievement]."