In what was an exhilarating weekend of quality youth football at the High-Performance Center in Pretoria, Cape Town City and the University of Johannesburg conquered the Engen Champ of Champs on Sunday.
City were crowned champions in the boys’ final, after cruising past Chippa United with a 3-0 win, while UJ edged Durban Ladies 1-0 in the girls’ final.
Both teams walked away with a R30 000 winner’s prize money, while the runners-up each got R20 000.
After the prize-giving ceremony, Engen Ambassador and football coach Thabo Senong congratulated both City and UJ for being crowned champions, including all the teams that participated in the tournament.
Many thanks
“It was an exciting, fantastic tournament, you know, champ of champs 2025, and then once again, we just want to say many thank you to Engen for their continuous commitment. It’s been 23 years, and an amazing tournament,” Senong told Sunday World on the sidelines.
“We also have to thank SAFA [SA Football Association] and the University of Pretoria for hosting us. The facility, the quality of the pitch was amazing throughout the three days, and to the teams, congrats to everyone, including the coaches.
“We started with the workshop before the tournament, and the workshop was fruitful, insightful. We spent 100 minutes just discussing the evolution of youth football. But then to the teams, the winners, congrats to Cape Town City and congrats to University of Johannesburg, respectively, but also all the teams that participated,” Senong added.
Big stars in attendance
Some of the guest of honour who graced the occasion with their presence was Banyana Banyana coach Desiree Ellis, Chippa United boss Siviwe ‘Chippa’ Mpengesi, former Kaizer Chiefs midfielder Cole Alexander, and Cape Town City assistant coach Lebohang Manyama, just to name a few.
Amajita coach Raymond Mdaka also took his time to make an appearance at the tournament on Saturday, just hours after returning from the U20 World Cup in Chile recently.
