Cape Town City have another starboy on their hands with teenage sensation, Gabriel Amato. Let's take a closer look at his journey and hear the praise he's garnered from one of his coaches.
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The story
The 18-year-old midfielder has impressed since being promoted to Cape Town City's first team at the beginning of the current campaign.
He's put in some solid performances for the Citizens with nine appearances in all competitions, scoring a single goal and earning a Man of the Match award on debut against SuperSport United in September.
In a recent interview with his club's media team — Amato shared his thoughts on the journey to professional football and what the future holds.
"Playing in the first team, it's been a new challenge for me definitely. I've been working towards for a long time, it's been on my mind since the start of DDC [DStv Diski Challenge] last year, it's been a goal," said the youngster.
"I'm really pleased with how I've trained and played and how I've progressed. I really hope I can carry on doing that," he added.
The South African under-17 international mentioned the difficulties of transition from the DDC to the PSL but is steadfast in his ambition to hold down a spot in Eric Tinkler's side.
"Transition from DDCs to the first team, it's obviously come with its challenges. Just coming to training here, being exposed to better players, naturally you're going to get better, if you don't get better you won't stay.
"So, I've had to adapt. I've enjoyed the challenge, I've enjoyed it lots. I want to keep pushing myself here," noted the youngster, who admitted that it took him a while to get used to the senior set-up.
"I'm a bit of quiet guy, so it took a bit of time for me to come out of my shell a little bit. But I feel like once the guys saw me play and saw that I can do stuff with the ball, then it [became] easier to get along and to build relationships," he said.
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CT City's assistant coach and club legend, Lebogang Manyama heaped praise on the youngster in his recent interview with Goal South Africa, lauding his disciplining and tipping him to have a bright future in the game.
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