A bridge could be opened to Scotland for Eastern Cape footballers with dreams of playing in Europe.
This will happen if talks between Carlos Academy and Scottish top-flight team Livingston go smoothly.
It could lead to a project similar to the one Ajax Amsterdam once had with Ajax Cape Town.
Academy director Carlos Mtshamba is to travel to Scotland this week to meet Livingston officials to negotiate a partnership.
Part of his proposals are for players from the academy to visit Scotland once a year for a chance to be scouted by Livingston.
Mtshamba has had a relationship with Livingston over the past few years which was built on the basis of the Scottish team signing winger Aphelele Teto from TS Galaxy about three seasons ago.
Mtshamba is the representative of Teto, one of the prodigies at the academy.
In 2024, four boys from the Carlos Academy received an invite to impress at Livingston.
“We want to lure them to the Eastern Cape and identify some potential players in the coming years and help us with building proper facilities for the academy,” Mtshamba said.
“We had some chats regarding those aspects with the head coach of the team, David Martindale.
“He was open to discussions because he was impressed by the football fundamentals of the players from the province including Teto.
He will now propose this to his bosses.
“We want something like Ajax had in Cape Town, we saw how that worked perfectly for the development of players in the Western Cape.
“Our senior team at the academy has been wearing the kit that Livingston donated to us for their matches already,” he said.
Livingston returned to the Scottish Premiership last season and are on a rebuilding phase after losing their key players when they got relegated about two seasons back.
Nicknamed the Lions, Livingston have some history in European football.
They qualified for the Uefa Cup in their maiden season in the top-flight in 2001, finishing third behind Celtic and Rangers after they were promoted from the Scottish First Division the previous year.
They won the Scottish League Cup in 2004. However, in the same year, they were hit by financial problems and eventually relegated to the First Division in 2006.
In 2009, they faced further financial problems and were on the verge of suffering liquidation. They were subsequently demoted to the Third Division.
But the club achieved consecutive promotions and went on to regain their place in the top tier after winning the 2017/2018 Premiership playoffs.
Daily Dispatch
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