PRETORIA – Like father, like son. That looks to be the way it will pan out after it was announced this week that Tyrique Bartlett, the 17-year-old son of former Bafana star Shaun, has been signed by Newcastle United's academy in England.
Tyrique is obviously hoping to follow in the footsteps of his illustrious father, who also improved his game in England.
Bartlett senior spent six years with Charlton Athletic, which has a history of fielding South African players including Mark Fish, who made 102 appearances for them after joining in 2000.
As Tyrique was born in England, he does qualify to play in that country. The Newcastle United online magazine reports that while Tyrique has joined the club's academy, they are still awaiting international clearance for him to play competitively – though he did though put on a Newcastle shirt for the first time on Thursday.
He played in an Under-23 friendly against Burnley, replacing Tom Heardman for the final half-hour in a 7-0 stroll for United. Added the Newcastle website: "Naturally we are focused on first-team results and performances, but great to see incoming players underneath the first team.
"Results and performances of the Academy and Reserve teams have been pretty depressing overall in recent seasons.
"We recently highlighted that there had been an improvement already under Rafa Benitez at Academy and Reserve team level, with stats showing a significant improvement in results up to Christmas 2016, as compared to the same period last season."
Shaun Bartlett is now the manager of the University of Pretoria FC, and Tyrique was recently with them before joining up with Newcastle.