SA bids final farewell to Bafana midfielder Jayden Adams
Bafana player Jayden Adams will be laid to rest in Stellenbosch, Western Cape on Saturday.
Adams died at the age of 25 earlier this month.
He will be honoured with a special provincial funeral.
A representative for the family Jonwen Lewis told the SABC, ahead of the formal programme, that he started playing at the age of five.
“Jayden was a very small boy, playing against bigger people. So, since that time you could see the talent and the vision that he had. So, he had to work a bit harder to play because he was a small.
“But that was amazing for his mother, for his father, to see Jayden prosper in the talent that he was given. The breakthrough moment was for Jayden when he came back from Ajax, he played here, there were scouts that saw him play for Marty's High Performance team.”
He said the player was groomed at Forward Zone before joining Supersport United.
Born in Cape Town, Adams came through the Stellenbosch FC academy and became the club's first youth graduate to sign a professional contract in August 2020.
He went on to make 139 appearances for the Cape Winelands side and helped them win the Carling Knockout in 2023 before joining Mamelodi Sundowns in January 2025.
At Sundowns, the midfielder added a Premiership title and a CAF Champions League crown to his list of honours.
His death comes less than a month after the passing of his grandmother, on the eve of South Africa's Group A match against Czechia at Atlanta Stadium.
Adams played in all three of South Africa's group-stage matches at the World Cup, as Bafana Bafana reached the Round of 32 for the first time, but did not feature in the knockout defeat by Canada.
He was also part of the South Africa squad that finished third at the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast.
WATCH JAYDEN ADAMS FUNERAL
