{"id":14434,"date":"2025-11-03T12:49:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T10:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/after-a-decade-amajimbos-back-on-world-cup-stage\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:27:01","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:27:01","slug":"after-a-decade-amajimbos-back-on-world-cup-stage","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/after-a-decade-amajimbos-back-on-world-cup-stage\/","title":{"rendered":"After a decade, Amajimbos back on World Cup stage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>South Africa\u2019s (SA) U17 men\u2019s football team, the Amajimbos, are gearing up for their FIFA U17 World Cup opener against Bolivia in Qatar this afternoon, with coach Vela Khumalo confident the team is ready to perform.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It is the first time in ten years that SA has qualified for the U17 World Cup. The last squad to reach the tournament included Khanyisa Mayo, Siphephelo \u201cYaya\u201d Sithole, and Reeve Frosler. Khumalo says starting the tournament with a win is crucial.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re here to let our football do the talking, for the country, for ourselves, and for the players,\u201d Khumalo said. \u201cWe\u2019ve been waiting a long time for this moment, and we want to give our best performance.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The 2025 tournament, hosted in Qatar for the first time, has expanded to 48 teams, with ten African nations taking part. The Amajimbos are aiming to make a strong impression and show the growing strength of SA youth football.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13163,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-14434","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"South Africa\u2019s (SA) U17 men\u2019s football team, the Amajimbos, are gearing up for their FIFA U17 World Cup opener","published_date":"2025-11-03 14:47:47","news_description":"South Africa\u2019s (SA) U17 men\u2019s football team, the Amajimbos, are gearing up for their FIFA U17 World Cup opener","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19095,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14434\/revisions\/19095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}