'Bafana is not a place to build,' says Marumo Gallants coach Dan Malesela

SA football legend and Marumo Gallants coach Dan “Dance” Malesela says Bafana Bafana shouldn’t be a place where players are developed, and only the best should make the cut.

Malesela’s say comes at a point when Bafana coach Hugo Broos is being heavily criticised for his selection criteria, leaving out some players because they are too old and don’t help his process to build the national team.

Malesela believes Bafana should be dominated by players who are top performers and ready to play at such a level, rather than saying they will come right after a certain number of years.

“If you have six players at Sundowns that are good enough to go to the national, let them go and if you have nine let them go. In Spain they were doing it, take them if you are good enough,” Malesela said.

“The national team is not to start saying I’m going to build. You can’t build in the national team — you don’t build there.

“You play to win in the senior national team because there’s high competition, there are positions in the world (rankings) that are at stake.

“You need to get ready-made people every time. Let the clubs fix and as a coach you should look and ask who is next? Look at the players that are performing at the time and play them in the national team,” Malesela told the media during the SA Football Coaches Association (Safca) event at Safa house in Nasrec on Thursday.

The former Orlando Pirates legend strongly believes if SA takes the route of developing players in the senior national team, the country is going to wait a long time before they can taste success.

“We want that success, and we want recognition as a country. You cannot go and develop players in the national team,” he said.

“Why are you developing them — to go beyond the national team? Because they are going to stay there.

“Don’t talk about four or five years, you don’t know what is going to be happening with these players. What if you say I’m focusing on this young player and somehow, he gets out of hand and he misbehaves and he is out of football?

“You have been building someone who is out of football, or they get injured. You ought to get ready-made people now. Where are you really building to? You must play to win, qualify for the World Cup.”

Safca celebrated 30 years since its inception.

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