The Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) champions Amajita returned home to a thunderous welcome at OR Tambo International Airport on Tuesday after making the country proud in Egypt during the recently concluded continental tournament.

South African U20 men’s national team coach Raymond Mdaka’s charges won the title on Sunday night after beating Morocco 1-0 in the final at the June 30 Stadium in Cairo. Gomolemo Kekana’s second-half strike in the 70th minute was enough to claim a famous victory for the South Africans.

Safa President Dr Danny Jordaan, who was with the team in Egypt for the final, said the work that is taking place behind the scenes if bearing fruit with Bafana Bafana, Banyana Banyana, SA U15 Girls and Boys, SA U17s, SA U20s and the South African side that will represent the country in the African Nations Championship all qualifying for major tournaments this year.

“First of all, I want to congratulate our team, Amajita. You know, in Egypt they don’t know the word Amajita. Now, everyone knows Amajita in Egypt,” the Safa President said.

“I don’t know what it means in Arabic, but the team gave an incredible performance right up to the last minute of the last match. And unfortunately, it was South Africa and Morocco again. (Banyana Banyana) Coach Dr Desiree Ellis is here and we remember in Morocco when we played against them in the Wafcon final, Desiree Ellis was the first one to bring the Africa Cup of Nations home.

“She’s still the champion of Africa, and we now have the second champion in Amajita. So, congratulations. I think the question always is why are the teams performing now? Why now? And I must just tell you, Desiree, I don’t know how many years you are the coach, and you’ve been in Safa for 10, 20 years.

“Raymond Mdaka, here, the SA U20 coach, has been with Safa and the U20s for 20 years. Hugo Broos is now going over his first four years, and we can go on.

STABILITY

Therefore, it’s clear that coaching stability and having a coach pursuing a particular project, is one of the major success stories. I want to thank all the coaches here, and particularly Raymond Mdaka. He was voted the best coach in the CAF Afcon.”

Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi: “Mine is very simple and it is to bring a message from the South African Government just to congratulate the team and thank them for not only representing the country, but for also conquering the continent.

“We are proud of you and wish you well in your new careers. We remain confident that what you have done today in the next five years or so, you will do it on a world stage.

We are proud of the work that you have done, to the President of Safa and his leadership, the coaches that are here, thank you so much for this. Let’s protect this young talent, nurture it, so that it can do better than this next time.”

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos: “First of all, like everyone, I think I have to congratulate Coach Raymond for the fantastic job he did in the last two or three weeks. It was nice to see and I followed nearly every game.

"I have to congratulate you, coach, for first of all the motivation you gave on the team. When you saw them playing, they were motivated, they wanted a big result. I have to congratulate you for the tactical moves you learned and for the fantastic mentality they showed on the field.

“So I think you did a very great job to bring this trophy here to South Africa. I have to congratulate the team and you know, guys, achieving the top is easy, but staying on the top, it’s so much more difficult.

"Everything starts now for you, you’re on the crossroads, or if you take the right direction and we see you back in the next months, next year in Bafana, in big teams, maybe here in South Africa, or maybe abroad, or you take the other way.”

Coach Mdaka thanked his players, the technical team and the members of the support staff that worked tirelessly with the players, sometimes until the early hours of the morning.

“First and foremost, I would like to thank the President for giving me the opportunity to lead the U20 team. I would also like to acknowledge the head coaches of the senior national teams here, it is an encouragement to the boys seeing coach Hugo and coach Desiree, the leadership on my right hand side and also the HOD thank you so much,” he said.

“Once more I want to again congratulate the boys, they did a great job. Honestly it was not an easy job, you could see by the results, starting from the first game where we played Egypt, it looked like from a distance if you did not see the game, a loss would say something.

"But we were able to get back, pick ourselves up, do our best, and work on our agreements.

“We went to an extent of saying, sometimes if it doesn’t work out for us tactically, because the opponents also would come up with their tactics, we must have the character to fight. And in most of the games, you’ll find that maybe we don’t start well, but we’re able to come back.”

Amajita captain Patrick Autata said the pressure was intense at times, but in the end they managed to overcome it win the tournament.

“I want to thank the Lord for being with us and granting us the strength and the mental strength to be able to endure and bring this trophy back home. And also from Egypt, coming back home, I want to thank him. And also I want to thank each and every one of you here. Thank you so much for the support that you guys showed us and gave us,” he said.

“It was very difficult, I do not want to lie, especially after the first game (in the 0-1 defeat to Egypt). It was tough for us. We had devastated faces in the changeroom.”

The team has also qualified for the U20 Fifa World Cup. They achieved the feat after they beat their DR Congo counterparts in the quarterfinals of the U20 Afcon.