One of the country’s most promising young players, Lazola Maku, has received a heroic welcome from teachers and fellow learners following his prestigious achievement at this year’s Under-20 Afcon tournament held in Egypt.
It is perhaps no secret that South Africans pride themselves on being a proud sporting nation, and when any of our national teams succeed on the big stage, we all celebrate.
This past Sunday produced yet another one of those goosebump moments when the mzansi’s very own Amajita defeated Morocco in a 1-0 nail-biter to lift the coveted prize.
After returning home, the 17-year-old, who placed his schoolwork on hold to represent his country, was greeted by hundreds of proud schoolmates at Noordwyk Secondary School in Noordwyk this past week.
Noordwyk Secondary School knows how to celebrate their heroes 🙌🏿
What a welcome for South Africa U20 midfielder Lazola Maku 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾 pic.twitter.com/hi2T8upoPe
— Football Stage (@Football__Stage) May 22, 2025
Lazoko has been among some of the team’s standout players in this year’s tournament after having featured in every game since the start of the tournament. In the process, he also showcased an excellent display of football to be awarded the Man of the Match against Zambia.
In conversation with news publication SowetanLive, he shared that he was overwhelmed by the amount of support shown to him by his school.
“Since day one, when I was selected, the school has supported me. Even when I was in Egypt, they kept on supporting me with messages of well wishes. The support I have been receiving from the school and the principal has been encouraging,” he said
Meanwhile, his class teacher Nonhlakanipho Buthelezi praised the character of her student.
“He is a committed learner, very shy, but he is also disciplined in such a way that he can balance his schoolwork and his soccer. I’m happy as his teacher. As a class, we are also going to celebrate him,” she said.
The school principal, Alex Tau, hopes that this will encourage his other learners to dream big and work just as hard to achieve their goals.
Also see: Bright future ahead for Mzansi as Amajita clinch u20 AFCON
