Former Ajax youth star Yanga Baliso wants to take Europe by storm.
The 23-year-old Gugulethu-born midfielder is currently in Finland where he plays for IFK Mariehamn.
It’s just another stepping stone for the youngster though.
First spotted by current South Africa U23 coach David Nyathi at a youth tournament in Kensington where he was a guest player, Baliso joined Ajax’s U15 team.
He quickly became one of the brightest prospects in the youth teams and looked set to become another graduate to the first team
The opportunity came when stalwart Granwald Scott left for Slovan Bratislava and coach Roger de Sa called him up as a replacement.
Problem is, Baliso had already signed a pre-contract with Orlando Pirates by then.
The youngster never cracked the nod for the first team in Soweto and reached out to De Sa, who had moved to Platinum Stars at the time, but they were fighting relegation and adding a youngster was not ideal.
So when De Sa relocated the team from Rustenberg to Cape Town to form Cape Umoya, Baliso got a loan move to the new club for regular game-time in the NFD.
He returned to Pirates after that season, but with no guarantees of playing in the first team, opted to terminate his contract and take up the opportunity of joining his current club IFK Mariehamn.
DREAMING BIG: Gugs youngster Yanga Baliso
After a promising start that included a few Man of the Match performances and the October Player of the Month awards, Covid-19 struck.
But when they return on July 1, Baliso is ready to continue his climb.
He says: “Things are slowly getting back to normal this side.
“We’ve been training and we’ll play our first match against FC Ilves on the 1st of July.”
dailyvoice@inl.co.za