In recent years, Orlando Pirates have been promoting young talent from their DDC team to the senior squad, with recent call-ups including Thabiso Sesane, Relebogile Mofokeng, and Mohau Nkota.
Pirates captain Innocent Maela has praised the youngsters for their impressive performances, attributing their success to being coachable and ability to follow instructions.
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Maela acknowledged the crucial role of the DDC coaches in developing the young players.
"A lot of credit has to go to the academy. The coaches that have worked with them throughout. But also as individuals. You need to give credit to the guys. Not only the young ones but everyone. The spirit we have in the squad is unbelievable and it helps us grab new information and tactics and for the players also to be coachable it helps," Maela said, speaking exclusively to KickOff.
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The former Bafana Bafana defender also expressed his well wishes for the youngsters as they continue their development with the first team.
"We wish them all the best if lucky and we are here to support them. And they have to keep on going and keep their feet on the ground and improve and getting better and better and keep on being humble. But most credit should go to the academy coaches who worked with them and also to then to grasp the information and being coachable is very important. They should keep on improving," Maela concluded.