MADRID – Atletico Madrid youth goalkeeper coach Francesco Musacchio has praised Golden Arrows reserve team shot-stopper Njabulo Cebukhulu on their tour of Spain.
Musacchio mentored Cebukhulu during Arrows’ regeneration training session at the Wanda Atletico de Madrid training complex on Tuesday.
Abafana Bes’thende have endured a terrific period in the Spanish capital thus far. In their first encounter on Monday, they tamed local side Rayo Vallecano 2-1 at the Ciudad Deportiva Fundacion Rayo Vallecano.
“I like Njabulo (Cebukhulu), he’s a very good goalkeeper,” Musacchio said.
“It was a very good session of football and he’s got a very good height for a goalkeeper. He’s got a good level of technical quality. It was very simple to work with him.”
Musacchio continued: “If a goalkeeper doesn’t have a good level of technical quality, the training session becomes very complicated to prepare.
“I enjoyed this training session, hence it is very important for the goalkeeper and the coach to enjoy.”
The 21-year-old goal-minder, who’s yet to feature for Abafana Bes’thende since joining the team from ABC Motsepe side Acornbush United two seasons ago, said he was relieved with his performance at Madrid’s training session.
“The training was very good, just that I had to adapt to the cold weather conditions. Otherwise, I really enjoyed myself, ” Cebukhulu gushed.
“Musacchio encouraged me to continue working. He also asked for my e-mail address, so that we can regularly communicate. I am very happy to have worked with him today.”
‘Njero’ might have given his best in the training session, but he also feels like there are a few departments that he still needs to polish in his game – for instance, his ball distribution technique.
“I would still like to work on my service delivery,” Cebukhulu said.
“I want to be able to distribute the ball in time, be a quick thinker and make it a point that my decision-making is top quality.’’
Cebukhulu’s coach Papi Zothwane was also impressed with how the Spanish coaches conducted their training session. He says that he was overwhelmed with their discipline, before and during training.