Kaizer Chiefs assistant coach Khalil Ben Youssef has credited the club’s DStv Diski Challenge technical team for the strong performance of their academy graduates in the senior squad.
The Soweto giants registered their first win of the new season on Sunday afternoon. They beat Stellenbosch FC 2-0 at the Athlone Stadium in Cape Town with goals from Nkosingiphile Ngcobo and Glody Lilepo in their opening game of the new 2025/26 season.
Due to the absence of coach Nabi, who is attending to a family emergency, Chiefs were led by assistant coach Ben Youssef.
DDC graduates played a significant role in the win. Naledi Hlongwane, a South African Junior International, made his official club debut and was instrumental in creating the first goal. Aden McCarthy, another academy product, was named Man of the Match for his outstanding performance.
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Ben Youssef said giving young players an opportunity was a key part of the club’s strategy from the beginning. “When we discussed this before we came to Kaizer Chiefs, we discussed two things,” he told journalists.
“The first was that Kaizer Chiefs must come back because it’s one of the biggest teams in Africa. We must win a cup, and we must come back to Africa [CAF Inter-club], and we did it last season.
“The second thing we thought about was the DDC players and that they must get a chance to play. For us, we don’t check the age. If you deserve to play, you will play for the team. So we don’t think about the name or the age, we think about the performance.
“It’s the evaluation of the players during the training session; if they play well, we will give them the opportunity to play.”
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“Aden [McCarthy] was with us last season. We have to say thank you to our [development] coaches because they prepared them for us,” added Youssef.
“We keep in contact every time to discuss the availability of the players, whether they can help us or not, or if they are ready or not. Aden was with us when we started the league [last season].
“His performance was not so good last season. But we discussed it with him, and I have to say thank you to him because he keeps working and he finished the season with us.
“In the camp, he was one of the next players for us. So he deserves to play, and we didn’t give him a gift. His performances allowed him to play.”
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