Kimberley’s Emile can’t seem to put a foot wrong as Manchester City express interest

KIMBERLEY-born soccer star Emile Witbooi is drawing interest from some of the biggest English Premier League clubs.

The 16-year-old Cape Town City FC player is making significant strides, with reports noting his impressive performance during Under-18 football trials at Premiership club Chelsea. Rumours suggest that the young Kimberlite has been looking completely comfortable training with the Blues’ Under-18s.

As impressive as this already is, now it appears as if the Premier League’s defending champions, Manchester City, have also expressed interest in Witbooi. City’s head of recruitment, Grant Veitch said in a recent interview with football publication Soccer Laduma that City’s ownership group have Witbooi on their radar.

EXCLUSIVE ❗

Manchester City are among other top clubs interested in 16-year-old South African talent Emile Witbooi, who is currently impressing on trial at Chelsea. ✍️ @KurtLaduma

MORE: https://t.co/zZSnkifZhn pic.twitter.com/tOwX2uL1fD

— Soccer Laduma (@Soccer_Laduma) November 19, 2024

Veitch also mentioned a few other Premiership teams: “I’ve met with recruitment guys at Wolves, at Leicester, at Southampton.”

Back in 2023, the DFA reported that Manchester United were also monitoring Witbooi’s progress.

The young player’s career has been on a steady upward trajectory since he was officially signed by Cape Town City FC at just 15 years of age. At the time, this meant that he was following in his father Bradley Ralani’s footsteps

Prior to that, Witbooi’s soccer journey began when he lived with his mother, Avril Witbooi, and family in Barkly Road in Kimberley. It was there that the beautiful game’s bug bit him, and at the age of just 10 years old, he was taken under the wing of coach Kagisho ‘Spondosie’ Matile, who was renowned for identifying young talent.

By 2015, Witbooi found himself playing for Tshwaraganyo All-Stars, and at this time already, it was clear to see that he possessed immense talent

Witbooi is scheduled to return to South Africa on December 2.