YOUNGSTERS in the rural Transkei village of Mkhankatho are getting a Christmas present with a difference this week – a soccer field.

The field, to be home base for the 24 teenagers who make up the Mkhankatho Mighty Blues, will be carved out of virgin veld by a contractor who has donated the use of earth-moving equipment.

More donations have secured a complete set of soccer kit for the Blues – which was handed out to them at a ceremony on Monday – along with three professional balls and a set of metal goalposts with nets.

“To have these things here in the rural areas, it’s like a dream for these boys,” said the co-ordinator of the donations, Eastern Cape Health Department official Sizwe Kupelo.

Mkhankatho is 12km east of Libode and 37km from Mthatha.

Kupelo, who hails from Mkhankatho himself, organised the donations in his private capacity.

He said the Blues had been playing on a patch of commonage where they had to dribble around not only opponents but also the rocks protruding from the field.

“The only way they could cut the grass was wait for winter and burn it,” Kupelo said.

The new field was being laid out on the premises of a local school.

The contractor, Port St Johns- based Jola and Ginqi Construction, had even brought earth- moving equipment down from a project in Kimberley for the work.

The other items were sponsored by various business people, he said.

“We’ve had players that have died as a result of disputes around goals, because there’s no nets,” Kupelo said.

Though the new field would be home ground for the Blues, it would also be used by 15 other teams in the area.

Kupelo said part of his aim was to showcase talent that might otherwise be overlooked.

“With the 2010 World Cup coming to the country, everybody is saying Bafana Bafana is lacking talent. And if you look at PSL teams, you don’t have players from the rural areas. So it’s another way of challenging the PSL bosses in their search for talent. They mustn’t only look in the townships; they must also come to the rural areas.” – Sapa