Tshegofatso Ramabu (17), who made headlines in last year’s edition of the Gauteng Future Champions Tournament, has tipped the current Under-17 Kaizer Chiefs squad as favourites in the 2010 edition.

The Kaizer Chiefs open their account in the tournament on Monday, January 25, against SAFA Tshwane Select side before taking on Team Dublin and Shadong Luneng later in the competition.

“The coaches have assembled an even better team than we had last year. I have watched the players a couple of times and I am confident they are going to go all the way this year,” said Ramabu, speaking to kaizerchiefs.com at Naturena, the Club’s headquarters, on Tuesday morning.

“Ninja” as the player is known, has been at the Kaizer Chiefs development since the age of 14, and is currently training with the first team in the hope of impressing Coach Vladimir Vermezovic. He was also in the National Under-20 team that played in the Metropolitan COSAFA Under-20 team in 2009 and was also part of the team that went to play in Germany early in January.

He believes that the tournament raised his level of confidence. “We played against good sides last season and I remember when we beat Corinthians (Ramabu scored the only goal of the match) we were confident of going all the way. I still believe we could have beaten Boca Juniors, but in football sometimes you do not win. It was a good experience for all of us and I am sure the guys are going to enjoy themselves like we did. Good luck to them,” he added.