Broos miffed Galaxy player Ndamane misses Bafana call with no passport

Bafana Bafana coach Hugo Broos is irritated TS Galaxy centreback Khulumani Ndamane missed out on a career-enhancing national call-up because he does not have a passport.

Broos felt the 20-year-old defender, who has caught the Bafana coaching staff's eye with solid performances for the Rockets in recent weeks, had enough time from being named in a preliminary squad on March 4 to try to arrange a passport.

Announcing his final squad on Thursday for the 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho at Peter Mokaba Stadium on March 21 and an away game against Benin in Ivory Coast on March 25, Broos revealed Ndamane would have made the cut.

The young centreback has impressed as Galaxy have gone on a strong run under Adnan Beganovic since he replaced Sead Ramović in November, moving up to fifth place in the Betway Premiership on the back of eight wins, six draws and two defeats in the Bosnian-Herzegovinian coach's 16 league matches.

“It’s amazing that if you make a preliminary list, still there are players who don’t have a passport. That happened with Ndamane,” Broos said.

“We thought, and we had the intention, to take him with the final squad — but suddenly we received a message that he doesn’t have a passport. He would only have had the [new] passport next week and then you still have to go for a visa.

“Players have to learn that once they are in a preliminary squad, the first thing they have to look at is: ‘Do I have a passport? Because if the coach calls me, I have to be ready.'

“So this guy is missing a call-up for the national team because of his passport.

“I think in the future we have to make a list of 40 or 45 players and send it to the clubs and tell them the players who are maybe future Bafana players, so they have their passports in order — so we don’t have such ridiculous problems any more.”

Broos was asked whether Galaxy or their player is to blame for the issue.

“At the start, you blame nobody — but if you know you are on a preliminary list of a national team, the first thing you have to think of is: 'Oh, do I have a passport?' Because you know you don't only play in South Africa.

“So yeah, I blame the player a little bit also, because he is not alert enough to know, 'Oh, my passport'.”