McCarthy, who was born in the Cape Flats, attended the launch of the Under-15 tournament today in Johannesburg.
READ: Copa Coca-Cola launched
With over 1.3 million teenagers from more than 60 countries taking part, the Copa Coca-Cola tournament is recognised globally as the leading grassroots football programme in the world and the former Orlando Pirates striker says South Africa is blessed to be a part of it.
“I think it is so important because a lot of kids in underprivileged areas still struggle to get opportunities,” he says.
“But now they go into the townships and if you play for your school, then you give yourself that opportunity and if you are good enough you get spotted and get drafted into the Copa Coca-Cola team, and that’s when it depends on you.
“Back in my days, there was not any of this and you had to travel a lot of kilometres to go play in a tournament, but be unsuccessful because there were no scouts so it was much harder to succeed back then than what it is now with all the opportunities.
“I think it is an amazing thing that Coca-Cola is doing,” McCarthy adds.
The tournament kicked off in March with the regional matches in the Eastern Cape and will finish off the regional rounds on August 1 in Mpumalanga, before the provincial knockouts get underway.